This website is not a blog

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We came to understand blogs as chronologically-sorted pieces of information. And, although this works for many, it was not working for my personal space. I don't think blogs broke the internet , but in any case I was searching for a new way of blogging . One day, I crossed these words on a post called "My blog is not a blog":

The phrase "digital garden" is a metaphor for thinking about writing and creating that focuses less on the resulting "showpiece" and more on the process, care, and craft it takes to get there.

Although I knew what the idea of a digital garden was, I never considered it as an alternative for personal website. Most people I knew in that space are thought-workers. People whose main focus is to think about how to think. Such is the case of Ness Labs , or Andy Matuschak . Even though I like to think about stuff , I don't focus on the meta part of thinking.

A Blog without a publish button

This quote is a great way of describing what I am trying to achieve. On the one hand, I have notes, perhaps evergreen notes , that are built on links (see: backlinks are the core of my digital garden ). Thanks to these connections, some notes evolve into articles . There's no change from draft to published, just a difference in length, epistemic status , or dominant position on the home page.

Tom Critchlow puts it very nicely:

The distinction will come down to how you blog - some people blog in much the same way. For me however blogging is mostly performative thinking and less captain’s log. So I am looking for a space to nurture, edit in real time and evolve my thinking.

This website is a blog that is not blog

What I want to achieve in this space is a curated access to information by breaking the chronological order . I want to step-out of my comfort-zone and explore edge-cases in the hope of reaching and connecting with like-minded individuals. I am in the intersection between academic science, entrepreneurship, and as a hobby I am a web developer. This intrinsically opposite drives are hard to channel on one single outlet... Unless that outlet is designed to let the readers find what they want to find.

This website has a blog component. It is not a pure brain dump, a collection of linked notes. It has longer articles that will probably be featured on the homepage if I think they are worthy. There is no 'previous', no 'next', nor 'suggested articles'. The only way out of this note is by following a link to something you found interesting.

I am still struggling with the contradictory feelings of whether this is an attempt to Grow your online persona with smart performative blogging , or it is purely a combination of Digital gardens and personal blogs .


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Aquiles Carattino
Aquiles Carattino
This note you are reading is part of my digital garden. Follow the links to learn more, and remember that these notes evolve over time. After all, this website is not a blog.
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