Rereading As We May Think

Bush wanted the trail — the path a mind actually took through a library — to be as durable as the documents.

Most “personal knowledge” software stores the documents and throws away the trail. Folders are not trails. Tags are not trails. A highlight is not a trail.

A wiki-link is a trail you can walk forwards. A backlink is a trail you can walk backwards. Publishing a garden is handing someone else a trailhead.

That is why this site is a blog on the outside and a slip-box behind the door. You are reading the trails I am willing to show. The compost stays in the vault.

Related: The Memex trail, Why I stopped highlighting PDFs.