Inspiration

08 Apr, 2026

What inspired me to start a blog, a found poem:

What to Write?¹ If you have lost time solving a superspecific problem then you need to write about it, it can happen that you end up being someone hero some day. It can also happen that you’ll have the same problem again and then you’ll be your own hero.² your blog doesn't have to be a curated presentation of yourself to the world—it can be a byproduct of it. there is something to be said about the journey of self-discovery through the act of blogging: ³ You'd be amazed at how many things you take for granted as "common knowledge" are actually brand new to other smart people. There's simply too much to know in this world, and we're all continually learning. (I hope).⁴ I wish my grandparents had been bloggers because I'd pay just about anything to have a collection of their stories, thoughts and opinions.⁵

Something in there got me thinking about digital gardens. I always thought they were cute, fun, aesthetic, but not for me. I love plants because they are alive and even though they rely on me for water and care, they have their own intrinsic self and won't always turn out the way I expect. They might bloom, or grow 6 inches, or catch some awful fungus that I can't get rid of that spreads to all the other plants initiating a mass die-off. Hypothetically speaking.

But digital gardens always felt to me like a bouquet of flowers. Beautiful, but it's only a matter of time until they're dead. I'm good with bouquets too; I can keep them alive for over a week. But eventually, some stem goes moldy, or some link breaks, or some domain goes offline, and eventually you're left with a collection of dead things. Metal.

But reading these and other posts got me thinking about blogging and the indie web less as a personal chore, and more as a community, a neighborhood I can move into.

Links are the lifeblood of the web, and linking to other sites is a declaration ... that says, “...I am a human and a participant in this great work of humanity we call the Internet”.⁶

Blogging on platforms like bear and linking to people and things you like are some of the easiest ways to be a good neighbor in this shared space; they require less effort and skill than buying your own domain or building your own website. But those are good things to do as well.

Blogging is also a nice way to take back some control of your digital footprint. Someone on a podcast⁷ the other day (and I've seen the sentiment echoed around here as well) was lamenting the migration from forums to discord, because all of that shared knowledge and shared reality building is now hidden, never to be seen by the internet archeologists of 3026⁸.

And sure, by 3026, all the flowers will be dead. But maybe I can keep them alive for just one more week.

~ y

#blog #community #digital garden #indie web #inspiration