Notes Manifesto
This site hosts my working notes for organizing my projects, learning, thinking, and writing. It’s sometimes a bit of a mess, but it’s that way on purpose. As a reflection of my thoughts, my notes are living documents, full of half-explored ideas, and evolving as I gain new information, experience, and perspectives. I don’t place boundaries on what I write about or how much I write about it; rather, I consider this a place to exercise my creativity and practice my thinking.
So why publish my notes to the internet? Learning in public is a practice where writing and self-publishing are incorporated into the learning process. By continually writing about what I am learning and doing, I reinforce and clarify what I have learned. By making my notes public, I am opening up my ideas to feedback from the others. This further enhances learning and the refinement of thought.
Values
As a lifelong note-taker, I’ve discovered some best practices for myself, which I try to implement here. These aren’t necessarily rules, but standards I try to adhere to.
I have learned to value:
- Messiness over perfection. Notes may have errors or contradict themselves.
- Continuously evolving notes over static notes. Embracing change rather than stifling it.
- Freedom over structure. Guidelines breed creativity; rules stifle it.
- Interconnection over isolation. Dense interlinking allows for easy discovery and helps draw attention to unseen parallels.
What These Notes Are not
While I place few restrictions on the subject and style of my notes, there are some things that these notes are not:
- Instructions or how-to guides. There are better resources for learning out there.
Use of AI
Read my AI Policy for details on how I use AI within the context of my notes.