The internet used to be a garden. Personal websites were carefully tended plots where ideas grew over time, interconnected through hyperlinks like paths between flower beds. Then came the stream.
Social media transformed our relationship with content. Instead of tending gardens, we started shouting into rivers—our thoughts carried away moments after posting, replaced by an endless flow of new content. The stream rewards recency over quality, hot takes over nuanced thought.
The Garden Metaphor
A digital garden is different. It’s a place where ideas can:
- Grow over time — Posts aren’t frozen at publication. They evolve.
- Connect organically — Links between ideas create unexpected paths.
- Exist at different stages — Some thoughts are seedlings, others are fully grown.
Practical Gardening
To start your own digital garden:
- Choose permanence over performance. Your URL should last decades.
- Embrace imperfection. Not every page needs to be polished.
- Tend regularly. Visit old posts. Add new connections. Let ideas cross-pollinate.
The garden doesn’t replace the stream—we still need real-time communication. But for ideas that matter, for thoughts worth developing, the garden offers something the stream never can: time.