In reading about digital gardens and their philosophies, I keep seeing the “learn in public” approach come up, which is something I’ve been trying to do better with this site. (I am still learning to be consistent with it to get the most value, but now that it finally has a home this should pan out over time.)
For me, there are a few reasons to learn in public, as scary as it can be to be vulnerable about how much (or little) you know, and to put incomplete thoughts online assigned to your name.
- Learn loudly and without structure
- Document as you go: “today I learned,” notes, book notes, “huh” or “a-ha” moments, etc.
- This is something I struggle with sometimes, but with my system it’s easy to keep structures depending on what I need using tags, links, properties, and so on.
- By encouraging myself to publish informal thoughts and partial exploration, it’s easy to draft up an update and polish it for the site so I can keep the flows going.
- I also added a Wiki (March 2026) to gather the interesting stuff I learn from reading, conversations, taking courses, etc. I did this to help separate “things I’m thinking” from “things I learned.”
- Emphasis on growth
- I don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect since it will always be in progress. (And it will probably always be a little messy.) It’s more of an agile approach which I need to get better at in my professional life too so this is good practice!
- Because the notes are always a work in progress, it feels more like my learning will always be a work in progress. There’s no point where I will know everything and in some ways it’s easier to celebrate milestones of growth than it is to “wait until it’s done.”
- Community education
- If anyone is in the same spot as I am/was for anything I’ve written about, my site could offer perspective or instructions in a moment when someone might need it.
- When I add a mechanism for feedback my site will fit all the ‘learn in public’ criteria, inviting corrections and thoughts from others… Until then, there’s still Letterbird.
- Max’s learning journal
- I took a few years of Digital Learning Design courses to understand the context I was working within my job (though I wasn’t a learning designer, I felt the context would help in decisions surrounding my learning technology work) and during that time kept a learning journal. I also kept one during my BA English degree. I miss noting things learned and trying to articulate what I’m thinking about it.
- It becomes a network of knowledge nuggets and insights from my experience and learning.
- As I review and add to it over time, this helps reinforce memory and deepens my understanding of the topics and how they connect.
Links
Guess what? It’s not about reaching as many people as possible with your content. If you can do that, great, remember me when you’re famous. But chances are that by far the biggest beneficiary of you trying to help past you is future you. If others benefit, that’s icing.
Modification History
2026
- 3/11: Reviewed and updated for currency. Updated with highlighted styles to experiment with the new options I put in the CSS today.