Gardening Principles
Certainty: These are the garden's rules, and I mean to follow them for the long haul.
This note is the garden’s rulebook—and a public commitment I’m holding myself to.
1. Publish once it’s 60% done
A seed can be just three sentences long. The test for whether a note is ready to publish isn’t “Is it finished?” but “Will the me of three months from now be glad I wrote this down today?” Perfectionism is the garden’s most aggressive weedkiller—and what it kills are the flowers.
2. Process in the garden, finished work in the storefront
Every topic has exactly one home:
- Ideas, drafts, and half-formed conclusions still being tested → the garden (right here)
- Structured, citable, finished pieces → the storefront, nshidai.com
Once a note ripens into an evergreen, I distill it into an article on the main site. The article links back, at its foot, to the thinking that unfolded in the garden; the garden note gets a “written up” marker at its head. The two cross-link—but never haul content back and forth.
3. Tend weekly—small but steady
One 30–60 minute gardening session each week:
- Plant two or three new seeds
- Add a backlink or two to an older note
- Prune one older note (reworking a few sentences counts)
4. Label honestly
Every note carries its growth stage, its planting and tending dates, and a one-line note on how sure I am. The footer’s “last tended N days ago” never lies—if a note has gone to seed, it has gone to seed. This is accountability, out in the open.