- Most blog posts are sorted chronologically. Sure, you can also sort them into categories or tags within a blog. But in the end, they're sorted by time. And it's hard to break categories down into fine enough pieces.
- Unless you're writing a series with some deliberate plan behind it, chronological ordering just confuses anyone trying to explore. I've had the experience of landing on the blog of someone who writes well, only to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume and spend ages trying to find just the posts on the topic I cared about.
- So if you want to organize writing by context, I think you need something like this digital garden. Granted, the digital garden approach isn't yet widespread, nor is it a proven method that readers find useful. But I think it has more potential than a blog that simply lists things in chronological order.
- Because nothing is sorted by time, there's no need to force yourself to post on a regular schedule — you can just post or revise whenever you have the room for it. Since you can arrange the writing however you like, whenever you like. Also, I write without worrying about spelling and grammar. Either way, what matters is continuing to plant thoughts and connect them. Maybe this is a form of personal branding?
- You may come across posts that say something different from what I currently think, so check the created and updated dates — if a post is fairly old, just keep in mind that it may not match where I am now.
- With notes only I will read, I end up writing without much effort (which is probably for the best), but the moment I set out to write something for the digital garden, a bit of effort inevitably creeps in. Less than with a blog, though. In any case, from the standpoint of writing consistently, a digital garden works well. It can serve as a daily workout for writing. Like the WoD in CrossFit.
- This part is actually a contradiction. The moment you write something that will be public, effort creeps in, and since you can't put in just the right amount of effort, it ends up becoming a blog after all. In that case, the only difference from a plain blog has to come down to the connections between posts and the fact that they can be revised at any time.