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The Garden

A collection of essays, notes, talks, podcasts, and half-baked explorations I'm always tending to.

Topics

May 2025

In a wonderfully dramatic change to my life, I became a mother two months ago. My son was...

Now Update 14 days ago

Statistically, When Will My Baby Be Born?

A tiny tool to calculate when your baby might arrive

Note 3 months ago

March 2025

Well, I've had a dramatic start to the year. Normally, the design agency I joined a short...

Now Update 3 months ago
Tools for Thought as Cultural Practices, not Computational Objects

Tools for Thought as Cultural Practices, not Computational Objects

MIT Thinking with Sand, Online +3

Talk over 4 years ago
Growing a Human: The First 30 Weeks

Growing a Human: The First 30 Weeks

Reflections on the strange experience of growing a human from scratch, without any conscious understanding of how you are doing it

Essay 5 months ago

How to Import Academic Papers from Zotero into Tana

How to use Zotero's translator and Tana Paste formatting to easily import papers into Tana

Note 5 months ago
View episode
What is AI's UI?

What is AI's UI?

Hanselminutes

Podcast 5 months ago

December 2024

We're back in that glorious post-Christmas, pre-New-Year's liminal period when the days...

Now Update 6 months ago
The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

UX Brighton, Brighton +4

Talk about 2 years ago
Squish Meets Structure

Squish Meets Structure

Smashing Conference, Antwerp, Brussels +3

Talk almost 2 years ago

Aesthetic Command Lines with Hyper, Spaceship, and Oh My Zsh

My fairly banal, basic, but beautiful command line setup

Note 8 months ago
View episode
Barefoot Developers, AI, and End-user programming

Barefoot Developers, AI, and End-user programming

Localfirst.fm

Podcast 10 months ago
View episode
Possible Futures for AI in Interaction Design

Possible Futures for AI in Interaction Design

Complementary

Podcast 10 months ago

Leaving Elicit

Reflections on two years of working at Elicit and why it's time to leave

Note 11 months ago
Home-Cooked Software and Barefoot Developers

Home-Cooked Software and Barefoot Developers

Local-first Conference, Berlin

Talk about 1 year ago

July 2024

Despite the regular drizzle, this summer is looking splendid. The tories are out of...

Now Update 11 months ago
View episode
Becoming an AI-native Designer

Becoming an AI-native Designer

Dive Club

Podcast 12 months ago

Faking William Morris, Generative Forgery, and the Erosion of Art History

Buying fake William Morris prints on Etsy and other early signs of epistemological collapse

Note about 1 year ago
View episode
Visual Storytelling in Tech, Designing for Al, and the Future of Coding

Visual Storytelling in Tech, Designing for Al, and the Future of Coding

Devtools FM

Podcast about 1 year ago

On Opening Essays, Conference Talks, and Jam Jars

How to open pieces of narrative non-fiction writing, conference talks, and sticky jars

Note about 1 year ago

The Finest Narrative Non-Fiction Essays

Narrative essays that I consider ideal models of the medium

Note over 3 years ago

Spinning Worlds, Seasickness, and Dealing with Vestibular Neuritis

Gaining a strange disease and losing my ability to see straight

Note about 1 year ago

A Collection of Design Engineers

Collecting people I know who work at the intersection of design and engineering, in an attempt to figure out what a design engineer is

Note about 1 year ago
View episode
AI Tool Design and Tending a Digital Garden

AI Tool Design and Tending a Digital Garden

Sketchnote Army

Podcast over 1 year ago

Gathering Structures

How to gather people and create communities in ways that are low-stress and high-payoff

Note over 1 year ago

Speculative Calendar Events

Designing tentative calendar events to solve complex scheduling problems

Note over 1 year ago

Ambient Co-presence

Creating a subtle, peripheral, and synchronous sense of shared space and context on the web

Pattern over 1 year ago

Historical Trails

Giving people a visible, useful trail of where they've been over the course of an exploratory journey

Pattern over 1 year ago
Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw

Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw

The failure of drawing materials without mediums and meat

Essay almost 5 years ago

December 2023

The limbo-like lull in-between Christmas and News Years is my favourite period of the...

Now Update over 1 year ago
View episode
Language Models, AI, and Digital Gardens

Language Models, AI, and Digital Gardens

Shoptalk Show

Podcast over 1 year ago

September 2023

London flipped from sweltering summer back to drizzling grey yesterday. Autumn was...

Now Update almost 2 years ago
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On Digital Gardening

On Digital Gardening

The Informed Life

Podcast almost 2 years ago
View episode
Nope

Nope

BBC's Digital Human

Podcast almost 2 years ago

Language Model Sketchbook, or Why I Hate Chatbots

Sketchy ideas for interfaces that play with the novel capabilities of language models

Note almost 2 years ago

June 2023

The last six months have felt like a disorientating blur. While bouncing between overseas...

Now Update about 2 years ago

Computational Notebooks

Shareable, browser-based documents that can compile and run code

Pattern about 2 years ago
View episode
Why We Write and Language Models

Why We Write and Language Models

Clerestory

Podcast about 2 years ago

Neologisms

A collection of interesting words that have recently been coined

Note over 4 years ago
View episode
The Dark Forest and Generative AI

The Dark Forest and Generative AI

Clerestory

Podcast over 2 years ago

Teenage Skeuomorphic Desktop Designs

An archive of my high school desktop designs, circa 2009

Note over 2 years ago

Reverse Outlining with Language Models

Using language models to generate reverse outlines of writing drafts

Note over 2 years ago
The Dark Forest and Generative AI

The Dark Forest and Generative AI

Proving you're a human on a web flooded with generative AI content

Essay over 2 years ago

Empty Pointers and Constellations of AI

On the fuzziness of calling things “artificial intelligence” and moving the goalposts

Note over 2 years ago

The Dark Forest and the Cozy Web

An illustrated diagram exposing the inner layers of the dark and cozy web

Note about 5 years ago
Tools for Thought as Cultural Practices, not Computational Objects

Tools for Thought as Cultural Practices, not Computational Objects

On seeing tools for thought through a historical and anthropological lens

Essay almost 4 years ago

Command K Bars

Command line bars you can quickly summon with a keyboard shortcut

Pattern over 2 years ago

A Digital Anthropology Reading List

A few favourite books from the field of digital anthropology

Note over 4 years ago

November 2022

It's a weird week. Twitter is (possibly) entering a slow death march and much of my...

Now Update over 2 years ago

Programming Portals

Small, scoped areas within a graphical interface that allow users to read and write simple programmes

Pattern over 2 years ago

Folk Interfaces

People reappropriating existing software to solve their own unique problems

Pattern almost 3 years ago
A Picture Worth a Thousand Programmes

A Picture Worth a Thousand Programmes

React Advanced, London +2

Talk about 3 years ago

Joining Ought

A new role at an AI research lab working on tools for open-ended reasoning

Note almost 3 years ago

Positioning Elements & Scrollytelling in CSS

Notes on how to use the position property in CSS to make scrollytelling stories

Note over 4 years ago

July 2022

I've decided to join Ought, a non-profit research lab. I wrote about the move here, but...

Now Update almost 3 years ago
The Block-Paved Path to Structured Data

The Block-Paved Path to Structured Data

Structured Content Conference, San Fransisco

Talk about 3 years ago

Daily Notes Pages

Daily notes as a frictionless default input for personal knowledge management systems

Pattern about 3 years ago
View episode
Want to be Great at UX Research? Take a Cue from Cultural Anthropology

Want to be Great at UX Research? Take a Cue from Cultural Anthropology

The Stack Overflow Podcast

Podcast about 3 years ago

Building a Second Brain: The Illustrated Notes

Illustrated notes on the Building A Second Brain course

Note about 5 years ago
View episode
On Digital Gardening

On Digital Gardening

Reverb

Podcast about 3 years ago

Programmable Notes

Agent-based note-taking systems that can prompt and facilitate custom workflows

Pattern about 3 years ago

Interoperable Personal Libraries and Ad Hoc Reading Groups

Exploring ways to build social infrastructure around books and reading on the open web

Note over 3 years ago
Metaphors We Web By

Metaphors We Web By

A history of our metaphorical understanding of the web

Essay over 3 years ago

Spatial Web Browsing

Adding spatial affordances to the experience of browsing the web

Pattern over 3 years ago

Assumed Audiences

Naming your invisible audiences to free yourself from unspoken obligations

Pattern over 3 years ago

The Eponymous Laws of Programming

A collection of laws named for specific people in the field of programming

Note over 4 years ago

Epistemic Disclosure

Providing clear metadata on the epistemic validity of content

Pattern over 3 years ago

Algorithmic Transparency

Algorithms that make their reasoning visible

Pattern over 3 years ago

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions I am often asked to answer

Note almost 5 years ago
The Pattern Language of Project Xanadu

The Pattern Language of Project Xanadu

Project Xanadu as a pattern language, rather than a failed software project

Essay almost 5 years ago

Pink, Soft, Glittering Developers

A collection of observations on the rise of soft, sparkly, baby pink aesthetics among developers

Note about 4 years ago

The Best Illustration Books and Courses

My favourite resources for learning to draw and developing your visual thinking skills

Note almost 6 years ago

Pattern Languages in Programming and Interface Design

Notes on pattern languages and Christopher Alexander's legacy on software programming

Note about 5 years ago

A Meta-Tour of This Site

A video tour through how I build the old version of this site

Note almost 5 years ago

Tracking Humanity

The introduction to my thesis on the Quantified Self movement and the culture of self-tracking

Note about 5 years ago

A Metaphorical Reading Collection

A collection of my favourite books on conceptual metaphor theory

Note about 5 years ago

October 2021

After five years of working with egghead, I decided it was time to move on. I started as...

Now Update over 3 years ago

Illustrating Gatsby's Key Concepts

Illustrated notes on the key concepts of how Gatsby.js works

Note almost 5 years ago
A Brief Introduction to Digital Anthropology

A Brief Introduction to Digital Anthropology

A discipline at the intersection of cultural anthropology and binary logic

Essay over 4 years ago

New Harvest & Illustrating the Cultivated Meat Podcast

Illustrations made for a set of episodes of the Cultivated Meat podcast

Note almost 5 years ago

Making Programming Visual, Spatial, and Learnable

What's wrong with linear, static programming mediums and how might we improve them?

Note over 4 years ago

Plebeian Programming with Keyboard Maestro

How to write macros without touching the terminal

Note almost 4 years ago
View episode
Fortress of Solitude

Fortress of Solitude

Frontend Heroes

Podcast almost 4 years ago
View episode
Visual Programming

Visual Programming

Metamuse

Podcast almost 4 years ago
The Cultural Anthropology of React

The Cultural Anthropology of React

React Rally, Online

Talk almost 4 years ago

August 2021

With lockdown easing in London I've spent most of summer outside throwing tennis balls...

Now Update almost 4 years ago
Paleolithic Nostalgia

Paleolithic Nostalgia

Longing for the paleolithic past in the Anthropocene

Essay almost 4 years ago

Natureculture, Moral Purity, and Cultural Boundaries

Why there is nothing natural about the idea of 'nature'

Note about 4 years ago

Tending Evergreen Notes in Roam Research

A walkthrough of how I manage and tend Evergreen notes in Roam

Note about 5 years ago
Digital Gardening for Non-Technical Folks

Digital Gardening for Non-Technical Folks

How to build a digital garden without touching code

Essay about 4 years ago

The Echo & Narcissus Writing Club

A Hyperlink Academy writing club where we mimic the work of others

Note about 4 years ago
A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden

A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden

A newly revived philosophy for publishing personal knowledge on the web

Essay almost 5 years ago

What App is That?

A guide to the apps and tools I use to create illustrations

Note about 5 years ago

The Linear Oppression of Note-taking Apps

What we lose when our digital notes remove the freedom to move

Note about 4 years ago

Douglas, Dirt, and Matter Out of Place

Mary Douglas defined dirt as matter out of place – the crossing of boundaries

Note almost 5 years ago
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Digital Disembodiment

Digital Disembodiment

Hope in Source

Podcast about 4 years ago
View episode
Unique Roles of a Developer

Unique Roles of a Developer

She's in Tech

Podcast about 4 years ago

Problematic Proteins

How to offend everyone with boundary-crossing steak and nuggets

Note almost 5 years ago
How to Draw Invisible Programming Concepts: Part I

How to Draw Invisible Programming Concepts: Part I

A case study showing how I make illustrations for abstract programming concepts

Essay over 5 years ago

Fetishism & Mechanical Keyboards

Developer self-expression through coloured switches, keystroke actuation, and LED light displays

Note over 4 years ago
Meat Planet: The Illustrated Notes

Meat Planet: The Illustrated Notes

Visualising the cultural narratives around cultured meat

Essay over 5 years ago

Painting Roam Research with Custom CSS

How to customise Roam Research with your own CSS themes

Note over 4 years ago
View episode
Growing Digital Gardens and Tending the Web

Growing Digital Gardens and Tending the Web

The Swyx Mixtape

Podcast over 4 years ago
A Short History of Bi-Directional Links

A Short History of Bi-Directional Links

Seventy years ago we dreamed up links that would allow us to create two-way, contextual conversations. Why don't we use them on the web?

Essay about 5 years ago
Transclusion and Transcopyright Dreams

Transclusion and Transcopyright Dreams

The lost permissioning and copyright system of the Web

Essay over 4 years ago

Are Data Unions the Future of Data?

Illustrated notes on how data unions work and what problems they might solve

Note almost 5 years ago
Organic, Local, Artisan Data Storage

Organic, Local, Artisan Data Storage

Data is currently dislocated – our narratives and metaphors around it try to convince us it is immaterial

Essay over 4 years ago

A History of Cyborgs

Notes on the history of cyborgs and why the idea still holds historical weight in Western narratives

Note over 4 years ago
View episode
Technology as Process

Technology as Process

Hope in Source

Podcast over 4 years ago
View episode
Embodied Knowledge - Part 2

Embodied Knowledge - Part 2

Hope in Source

Podcast over 4 years ago

GreenSock Animations with React Hooks

How to use the Greensock animation library inside React using React hooks

Note over 4 years ago

The Bare Essentials of Greensock

Notes on the basics of the Greensock animation llibrary

Note almost 5 years ago

September 2020

Digging into the work of Barbara Tversky and reading the literature around embodied...

Now Update almost 5 years ago

The Gift Economy

Illustrated notes on the idea of Gift Economies and cultural historys of economic exchange

Note almost 5 years ago

Synecdoche: Drawing the Part for the Whole

Notes on the metaphorical varieties of synecdoche and metonymy

Note almost 5 years ago
View episode
Digital Anthropology, Digital Gardens and Illustrated Notes

Digital Anthropology, Digital Gardens and Illustrated Notes

RoamFM

Podcast almost 5 years ago

Growing the Evergreens

Illustrated notes on the concept of 'Evergreen notes' and how to write them

Note almost 5 years ago

The Knowledge Hydrant

Illustrated notes on the Knowledge Hydrant guide to collaborative learning

Note almost 5 years ago

A Naïve Exploration of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

Notes on the academic field of CSCL and major papers in the discipline

Note almost 5 years ago

Silent Synchronous Reading Sessions

Notes on how to run silent meetings and reading sessions

Note almost 5 years ago

What the Fork is React Suspense?

Illustrated notes on how React suspense works

Note almost 5 years ago

Visually Workshopping the AWS Cloud

Some insights into how I collaborative with experts to create illustrated notes on technical topics

Note almost 5 years ago
Drawing the Invisible: React Explained in Five Visual Metaphors

Drawing the Invisible: React Explained in Five Visual Metaphors

Women of React, Online +1

Talk about 5 years ago

Fixing Common Git Mistakes

Illustrated notes on common mistakes people make in Git, and how to fix them

Note about 5 years ago
View episode
Embodied Knowledge - Part 1

Embodied Knowledge - Part 1

Hope in Source

Podcast about 5 years ago
View episode
Open Source as a Gift Economy

Open Source as a Gift Economy

Hope in Source

Podcast about 5 years ago

A Chat with Henry Zhu on OSS & Gift Economies

Notes from my podcast episode Open Source and Gift Economies on Maintainers Anonymous

Note about 5 years ago
View episode
The Power of Mental Models

The Power of Mental Models

React Podcast

Podcast over 5 years ago
How to Become a Neo-Cartesian Cyborg

How to Become a Neo-Cartesian Cyborg

Building a Second Brain Meetup, London

Talk over 5 years ago

Defend Your Cookies with Essential Web Security Tactics

Illustrated notes on the essentials of web security

Note over 5 years ago

What the Fork is xState?

Illustrated notes on how to build state machines with the xState library

Note over 5 years ago

A Journey into Vue-Router

Illustrated notes on how routing works in Vue.js

Note over 5 years ago

What the Fork is Rust?

Illustrated notes on the core concepts in Rust

Note over 5 years ago

The Art and Craft of Gatsby Themes

Illustrated notes on building Gatsby themes

Note over 5 years ago

JavaScript Bits You Skipped the First Time Around

Illustrated notes on advanced but fundamental topics in JavaScript

Note over 5 years ago

Building Custom React Hooks

Illustrated notes on building custom React hooks

Note over 5 years ago

Immutable Data with Immer and Personal Assistant Bots

Illustrated notes on how work with immutable data in the Immer state library

Note almost 6 years ago

Speaking the GraphQL Query Language

Illustrated notes on the basics of the GraphQL query language

Note almost 6 years ago
Meet the Robowaiter APIs Serving Us Data

Meet the Robowaiter APIs Serving Us Data

Everything you need to know about what API's are and how they work

Essay about 6 years ago

A Fresh Serving of JavaScript ES2019

Illustrated notes on the new language changes in JavaScript ES2019

Note almost 6 years ago

The JAMStack, Gatsby & Contentful

Illustrated notes on the JAMstack, Gatsby & Contentful

Note about 6 years ago

Instachatting with Vue & Socket.io

Illustrated notes on how to implement web sockets with Vue.js and Socket.io

Note about 6 years ago

Building VR Apps with React360

Illustrated notes on building VR web apps with React360

Note about 6 years ago
A Shelfish Starter Guide to Databases

A Shelfish Starter Guide to Databases

The absolute minimum you need to know about data storage

Essay about 6 years ago

Testing Apps with Cypress

Illustrated notes on how to test web apps with Cypress

Note about 6 years ago
View episode
Turning Technical Concepts into Approachable Illustrated Metaphors

Turning Technical Concepts into Approachable Illustrated Metaphors

egghead.io Podcast

Podcast about 6 years ago

How Are Compilers & Transpilers Different?

Illustrated notes on how compilers and transpilers are different

Note about 6 years ago

A Fruitful Guide to JavaScript's Comparison Operators

Illustrated notes on how JavaScript's comparison operators work

Note over 6 years ago

What the Fork is Babel?

Illustrated notes on how Babel works

Note over 6 years ago

JSX is a Lovechild

Illustrated notes on how JSX in React works

Note over 6 years ago

What the Fork is the React Virtual DOM

Illustrated notes on how the React virtual DOM works

Note over 6 years ago

JavaScript's ...spread Operator

Illustrated notes on how JavaScript's spread operator works

Note over 6 years ago