What is this place? What am I trying to achieve here? What will you find here?
This site is not meant to be a standard blog. The closest term I could find for it is a digital garden. Among English-speaking audiences, that term is much more familiar, although it still remains somewhat niche among people who write online, or whatever you choose to call that group.
That said, this site does not fit neatly into the category of a digital garden, and there are plenty of other labels that could describe it. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure what this place is myself.
What I Can Say With Certainty About This Site
- This site is a central part of how I learn through writing. It is my path toward genuine understanding.
- This site forces me to be precise in my writing and clear in my thinking because it is public rather than private.
- This site is my way of bringing a wide range of interests under a single roof. A digital knowledge system that forces me to return to it regularly.
- This site forces me to stop consuming information passively and start creating things actively.
- This site allows me to develop the habit of writing after reading, which forces me to practice the Feynman technique as a daily tool for understanding.
- This site gives me a place to explore the things that naturally interest me and that I rarely have anyone to discuss with.
Page Types
You will find 4 main types of pages on this site:
- Notes — thoughts, ideas, drafts, and anything that is either unfinished or relatively shallow in its content or length.
- Essays — products of deeper investigation. Finished or nearly finished pieces that combine sources, explanations, ideas, quotations, links, and more around a particular topic.
- People — entries about people I have learned from or been influenced by in one way or another. From polymaths, philosophers, and scientists to fictional characters and others.
- Library — books, podcasts, television series, and films that made me think. These are incomplete lists for now, and certainly not everything I have consumed—only things that had a meaningful impact on me.
Stages of Maturity
Beyond the 4 main page types, there are 4 statuses, or stages of maturity:
- Seed — a draft or thought that has been thrown onto the page and not edited at all. Almost always a note in its earliest form.
- Root — a draft that has received some light editing. Sources have been added, grammar or structure improved, and relevant material incorporated.
- Trunk — usually a nearly finished essay. Half-complete or approaching completion. I will probably return to it in the future.
- Canopy — an essay or page that I consider finished. I have nothing else to add to it and will probably never revisit it.
For example, this page itself is only an early version. I know it is somewhat clumsy and clearly a first draft. Even so, I am publishing it as it is.
Unfinished pages are welcome here.
Some pages are finished. Some are drafts. Some will grow over time, and some will disappear entirely.
How Writing Works Here
The most common pattern behind the writing on this site looks something like this:
Brief exposure to a topic → writing from memory without aids (draft — seed/root) → deep research → writing a finished essay (essay — trunk/canopy)
The goal is not to create a chronological archive of polished articles like a traditional blog.
The goal is to think, write, and learn through writing.
This is how I force myself to stop researching and learning passively. My conversations with experts over email, the books I read, and the YouTube videos I watch stop being input without output. Over time, they become a growing network of ideas that I actively cultivate.
What You’ll Find Here
As for what you will find here: I write about many different things.
You will find notes, ideas, questions, entries, and essays touching on science, philosophy, the nature of reality, the human mind, human behavior, artificial intelligence, and consciousness. The central field connecting most of these topics is cognitive science.
I also write about anthropology, cosmology, evolution, Judaism, biblical studies, history, and more.
In short, this is a space for thinking in public. A personal inquiry journal dedicated to whatever happens to capture my curiosity.
And perhaps yours as well.
Most of the time, you will not find definitive answers here. Quite the opposite. Most pages begin with questions and end with questions (?)