## Networked Thought
Source URL:: <https://jzhao.xyz/posts/networked-thought>
### Highlights
> [!quote]+ %%Updated on Thu Sep 07 2023 10:42:00 GMT-0400%%
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> A digital garden is not a file cabinet, nor is it fully an index. A digital garden is less so a well-kempt plot for farming and more a mess of entangled growth. It is a network of interconnected ideas and thoughts, clustered by how they are associated with each other.
>This is not because I don’t like order, but because I think a dash of chaos and entropy is good for new ideas. They help connect two separate ideas that you normally would not have associated with each other, and to imagine the ‘what if’ more frequently.
> [!quote]+ %%Updated on Thu Sep 07 2023 10:42:00 GMT-0400%%
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> But there is also a philosophical basis for this which to me is quite practical. A pretty good master analogy is that it’s an attempt to make a big stew pot out of my brain–there is tremendous value in allowing all of these notes and ideas and observations to stew and ferment in there. For me, the real power comes when ideas intermingle and I’m able to discover connections that I truly could never have dreamed of under normal conditions.
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> My goal with a digital garden is not purely as an organizing system and information store (though it works nicely for that). I want my digital garden to be a playground for new ways ideas can connect together. As a result, existing formal organizing systems like Zettelkasten or the hierarchical folder structures of Notion don’t work well for me. There is way too much upfront friction that by the time I’ve thought about how to organize my thought into folders categories, I’ve lost it.
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> This is the problem with the file cabinet: it focuses on efficiency of access and interoperability rather than generativity and creativity.
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> Link by concept rather than by exact match. I will often explicitly have a See also: (some concept) link somewhere if I feel two subjects are closely associated. Linking new knowledge to existing knowledge makes it easy to remember. This has helped me find really cool connections on numerous occasions.
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> Name notes to be as simple as possible. I prefer using verbs or nouns to make it easier to link concepts and thoughts.
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> Good search matters a lot. When I search, I usually don’t know the exact name of the thing I’m looking for, otherwise, why would I be searching for it in the first place? I