how do I search
Over the years I’ve become extremely good at reading without actually gaining anything from it. While browsing I often find myself skimming, I assume most people do. I open a link, keep an eye out for “slop” and start scanning the page. If nothing sticks within the first few minutes, rinse & repeat until I’ve found something.
slowing down
The issue wasn’t really my attention span or ability to process information. The algorithms make decisions on our behalf[7], deciding what we read, see and engage with. The critical choices about our consumption are no longer ours to make.
When I first discovered digital gardens they came across as a way to revert this loss of agency. The friction digital gardens introduce force you to slow down by breaking complex ideas into modular nodes rather than a singular stream.[1][3] It turns a passive reading experience into a kind of ‘text adventure’. The garden hands back control over the exploration.