A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
by Maggie Appleton
Why This Resonated
This article perfectly articulates why I wanted to build this site the way I did. The concept of a digital garden—a space for evolving ideas rather than polished, dated blog posts—feels more authentic to how thinking actually works.
Key Ideas
- Gardens vs. streams: organizing by concept rather than reverse chronology
- Epistemic disclosure: being explicit about the maturity of ideas
- Learning in public: showing the messy process, not just the finished product
Impact
This essay directly inspired the structure of this site, particularly the distinction between polished essays and rougher notes. It gave me permission to publish incomplete thinking.