The Garden
Books, articles, papers, courses, videos, podcasts, and reports I have read, watched or listened to, with a note on each saying why I kept it.
5 items Articles
Essay / Article
Paul Graham
I read my drafts out loud before they go anywhere, and this essay explains why that works. Most people switch to a stiffer language the moment they start writing, and their readers pay for it. Graham asks whether you’d say the sentence to a friend. If you wouldn’t, rewrite it until you would.
Essay / Article
Wikipedia’s WikiProject AI Cleanup
My own editing checklist is built on this page. Wikipedia’s editors listed the habits that give AI text away, like puffing up how much everything matters and grouping things in threes. You’ll find a few of them in almost any draft, and reading this helps you catch them before your readers do.
Essay / Article
Mike Caulfield
My site has a Garden, and this keynote is where the idea of a digital garden comes from. Caulfield splits the web in two. The stream is your feed scrolling away, and the garden is a set of linked pages you keep tending. He asks us to build more gardens, and mine is my attempt at one.
Essay / Article
Alexis Nosamudiana
I had this problem while rebuilding this site, since my work covers writing, design, and code. Alexis almost split hers into 5 portfolios, until her partner asked why she was hiding the most interesting thing about her. She organized everything around stories, so the range still looks like one person’s work.
Essay / Article
John Gruber
This post started my glossary of internet coinages. Gruber named the pop-up that covers the page you came to read and stays there until you deal with it. I went looking for more names like it and ended up with over 100. Fair warning, the name isn’t polite.