if you're new to this term, read this! https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history i've been a geek about this kind of personal knowledge management (PKM) since college, and been around the block trying all the fancy-shmancy methods to 'build a second brain' (i even started a coaching service on how to do it for a while!) for the longest time PKM was a very sophisticated excuse for me to procrastinate engaging in any kind of actual creative work; i was ever justified in improving and tweaking my system "just a little bit more". tread carefully if you are entering this world of elaborate note-taking for the first time! i'd like to think that now i'm coming into the simplicity on the other side of complexity; after much iteration and radical simplifying, my digital garden (i use [obsidian](https://obsidian.md/)) is becoming a sanctuary in which i can think, journal, and work with information that i've captured from a wide array of sources. ![[Pasted image 20260926142051.png]] *my growing obsidian vault, circa 2026* ^ i use it for worldbuilding for a fantasy novel i'd like to write one day. i use it to go through highlights from e-books i've read, so i can digest the knowledge and transmute it into my own [[writing]]. i use it to cultivate my own sense of taste and sanity in this ensloppified digital shitstorm we find ourselves in. there is no single linear path through these notes. they are all in various stages of completion, but none of them are complete; this site is an ever-evolving organism messily comprised of topics i'm exploring, things i'm curating, and updates about what i'm doing. see [[the purpose of this site]] for why i've decided to make part of it public. i'm coming to believe that digital gardening, as a way to refine our own unique lens and perspective on the world, is one of the best long term investments we can make in ourselves in the age of AI.