Growing Ideas Like Mycelia

In 2010 I was told “if you ever have to explain something more than once, write a blog post.” It’s served me well. Many years later, writing has become second nature. I write everyday, sometimes in public, but mostly for myself these days. When I wondered why I seemed to stop, I realize it was the concept of posting has a permanence I don’t have time to refine these days. The concept of a blog is one you “publish” on an artificial chronology feels increasingly disconnected from how knowledge and ideas actually develop.

I recently discovered a concept that changed my approach and fits my pattern that works far more for me these days: the digital garden.

Why Garden Instead of Blog?

Knowledge doesn’t grow linearly – it expands as an interconnected network of thoughts. Some ideas sprout quickly, others need time to mature, and the most interesting ones often emerge from unexpected connections. That’s exactly what a digital garden enables.

Several thoughtful approaches have shaped my thinking, whether they identify as gardens or not:

• Linking Your Thinking by Nick Milo’s demonstrates the power of interconnectedness of knowledge structures
• Soren’s Second 🧠 has a thoughtful use of Maps of Content
• Jacky’s blog and werd.io opened my eyes to other patterns frequent, low-friction publishing

What resonates most is that digital gardens emphasize growth over perfection. They encourage starting small, connecting ideas organically, and watching knowledge bloom.

My Technical Setup: Obsidian + Hugo

While there are tons of complete framework out there, the key is choosing an approach that matches your thinking style. I use Obsidian extensively, but most of my files remain private. That rules out the standard Publish model since on day one of using it I published personal notes by accident. I’ve been drawn to rebuilding everything with yet-another-frame, but couldn’t find a workflow that made sense. Then I realized what could be done with a plugin and rethinking through the problem.

I finally went all in and build one that’s pretty beautiful. A minor taxonomy edit with a little metadata on the post and it all comes together. If you want to build on my setup, here are the essential components:

• Run this templater script to designate content as Garden or Blog
• Use a hotkey to launch Enveloppe to publish individual notes or batch upload
• Let my GitHub Action handle the build and deploy from gh-pages

For those starting fresh, I recommend experimenting with Quartz first – it might do everything you need. If you’re building on Hugo, you’re welcome to reuse my setup. I’d love to hear about it if you do.

Happy gardening 🌱