republishing my digital garden / my favorite questions
republished all of my notes today. i took them down a while ago because many notes feel too unpolished. but, idk, that’s part of the fun and my plans for the day got rained out so i needed a project. people also seemed to like my digital gardens post, and i think my vault is a good example of the type of linking i described. be the internet you want to see, etc.
every note is a work in progress; some are better written or more detailed than others. i’m learning about interesting things, though; below are some of my favorite questions – inspired by tiago forte’s favorite problems – which might give you an idea of what i prioritize in note-making.
here’s the vault. send me yours!
my favorite questions
- How does the digital landscape fragment our identities, relationships, and collective reality despite increasing our access to historical, personal, and communal context?
- How does prolonged exposure to trauma, shock, and chronic stress manifest, and in what ways are these manifestations pathologized to our detriment? How does this pathologizing obfuscate the culpability of institutions, structures, and perpetrators?
- How are trauma, shock, and stress experienced across generations and communities? Did the COVID-19 pandemic, as a collective shock and trauma, exacerbate a collective identity crisis?
- What disrupts our sense of identity and continuity? How do we become reoriented and grounded in our sense-of-self? How do we integrate all versions of ourselves into our self-understanding? How do we integrate our understanding of our past, present, and future into our worldview?
- How do we maintain our bodies across a lifetime? How do we experience our bodies as canvas, vessel, and self? In what ways are our bodies exploited, maliciously or indirectly? How are different bodies treated and controlled? How does one be in their body? What makes a body feel good?
- How do we define, collect, and manage data about ourselves? How can the principles of Personal Knowledge Management be expanded for deeper
inner-workmeta work? How do we establish and maintain individual and collective infostructures? - How can the principles of gardening, permaculture, and rewilding be used to create a new paradigm for our digital landscapes, virtual labor, and online publishing? How do we make collaborative digital gardens? Is this a better means of information sharing and consumption?
- What exactly is time-binding and is it truly unique to humanity? How can this be used to understand the need for time-bound continuity with oneself? Are life-archiving practices (photography, scrapbooking, journaling, vlogging) forms of personal and familial time-binding? How do we communicate with ourselves and others through time?
- What changed how we define truth and fact? How do we stay oriented when it feels like we no longer share a reality? How will humans and institutions cope when AI-generated content and deepfakes are indistinguishable from genuine content?
- How do we maintain a sense of play as adults? How do we find pleasure in an extractive culture? How do we expand our capacity for imagination and creativity?
- Where are we letting young people down? How could we reprioritize children in society, and what would be the benefits? How can childfree people support the parents and kids in their communities? How can we be more compassionate to people at all stages of life? How can we recognize and honor the unique changes and challenges of each?
- How is algorithmic amplification impacting culture and behavior? Does digital content – especially when it is violent, hypersexual, or manipulated – influence real-world trends? Are we becoming desensitized to extreme content? Is the sound of our own creativity being muffled in the noise?
- How do media, language, and digital landscapes shape our understanding of gender, identity, and their connection? What new forms of storytelling, self-definition, and expression might subvert norms and expectations? How do you subvert a structure from within it?