Why Digital Gardening Inspires Me To Do The Hard Work Of Self-Learning
Performative Posting Is Spiritually Degrading
*Goal:
To learn you have to make things. Writing, coding, answers to problems. Doing this in isolation is a lot less fun. It’s fun to share what you are excited about learning. This is why started my blog in 2021. But over time, between juggling my job, studying to become a CPA, etc. the pressure to post “finished” work dragged me down. It stopped me from posting and it slowed down my motivations to self-study. You can see this in the inconsistency of my posts and the long gaps between the dates of my notes.
It is a limiting experience. It forces you to perform a finished version of yourself rather than living the reality of your changing desires, interests and emotions.
Performative Blogging Left Me Uninspired
Process Over Product
Goal: The alternative to performative posting.
Moving from ‘Who I Am’ and ‘What I’ve Done’, to ‘What I am doing’. Digital Gardening is an alternative pass time that acts as a relief from the pressure of social media. It isn’t something you write. Its something that emerges from what you do. It’s building an online presence bottom up, rather than top down. It moves you from a state of performance to a state of active curiosity.
Digital Gardening Is About Process
Non-Performative Blogging Puts Curiosity First
Digital Gardening & Bottom Up Profiles
Embracing Imperfection
Goal: Just Start and Publish
the process of digital gardening is one of exploration and tending to. A balance of excitement and care. Each note or essay published is not an edifice to be meticulously architected and constructed. They are seeds, saplings and old growth. They are never ‘finished’. They are planted, grow, and eventually, maybe, die. The unfinished nature of your work is a feature, not a bug.
Many Great Works Are Unfinished
Digital Gardens Are Never Finished
John Cleese’s 5 Factors For Creativity (conditions needed for this kind of open creativity)
How To Sow A Garden
Goal: How to get started
How to get started. But also how the value comes over the long term.
Digital Gardens Require Maintenance
When Digital Gardening, Plan Long Term
When My Garden Is Nice I Spent More Time In It
Compounding Value Of Digital Gardens
Connected Notes
John Cleese’s 5 Factors For Creativity
Many Great Works Are Unfinished
Digital Gardening Is About Process
Digital Gardens Require Maintenance
Digital Gardening & Bottom Up Profiles
Non-Performative Blogging Puts Curiosity First
Digital Gardens Are Never Finished
Compounding Value Of Digital Gardens
When Digital Gardening, Plan Long Term
When My Garden Is Nice I Spent More Time In It
Performative Blogging Left Me Uninspired
Further Reading
My Blog is a Digital Garden, Not a Blog