Welcome to my blog.
I’m Akash Bagchi. A 23 year old software developer currently living and working in Tokyo, Japan. You’re currently seeing what I would sometimes refer to as a blog, sometimes as a wiki, and mostly as my digital garden.I encourage anyone interested to start with the links below:
Get Started:
- đź“ť Recently Changed
- 🏷️ Tag Index
- âť“ Why Maintain a Digital Garden?
- 🎠Life Blog
- đź’» Tech Blog
- đź’Ľ Resume
Why?
I’ve been a huge proponent of organized note-taking for the longest time, although I admit it’s more because I’m an aesthete, than because I’m organized.
I’ve jumped between dozens of different note-taking and agenda applications - from Notion to Todoist, physical journals and more; but nothing has ever really stuck because I’ve always foolishly tried to restrict it in scope - sometimes as a diary or journal, sometimes a to-do list, a budget, or maybe a poetry book.
This time though, I feel I’ve finally found a system that works for me, and that is to abandon attempt at labeling what this is or should be, and focusing solely on networked thinking. What does that mean? That brings us to the next section
The Objective
As I mentioned before, I personally attribute the failure of my past attempts at journaling and comprehensive note-taking to the fact that I would try to limit the scope of what got recorded to an objective that was narrow in scope. So isn’t it counter-productive to set an objective this time around too? Well yes, and no.
This time around, my objective is to simply have no set objective. Which is to say, I simply want to grow and expand this digital garden with all the ideas, philosophies, learnings, and reflections that bubble up in my brain. There’s no narrow restrictions in scope, because there is no scope. No definite format, grammar rules, timelines or targets, and therefore anything goes.*
But there’s some caveats of course, or should I say, there’s one. A self-imposed restriction I suppose, about what doesn’t get recorded here. But it’s honestly super simple and largely open to interpretation:
- This is not a journal
- When trying to record free-form thoughts and ideas, it’s very easy to soon find yourself writing a journal entry about your frustrations of today - which I don’t want.
- There’s value in those too, and I actually maintain a semi-regular private journal of my own, but I don’t believe that those raw thoughts alone are value-generating units when it comes to creating a digital garden. The ideas and reflections that arise from continued exploration and curation of these thoughts however? - fair game. That’s the stuff that surprises you with the emergent connections they form with your day-to-day life, way of working, and personality & inclinations; and that’s what I want to curate and nurture.
What’s in this for YOU?
Everything thus far has been purely about my own interest in this project and where the value lies in it for ME, but what about you, the reader? Truth be told, I can’t say for sure!
- If you’re a close friend or family, there may be value in seeing how I think about certain things if that’s the sort of thing that helps you appreciate or maybe even re-evaluate your relationship with me.
- If you’re a potential employer or professional acquaintance, there may be value in seeing my tech and work related entries to gauge whether I’m the type of person you want to work with.
- If you’re just a curious explorer of the internet, there may be value in seeing this concept of a digital garden for the first time, and perhaps it’ll inspire you to explore the practice for yourself - either privately or in a blog of your own; after all, that’s how it started for me personally
Either way, you’re here now, and you’re already 639 words in. So I’d encourage you to explore a bit more, and see if you notice any interesting connections or insights between my thoughts and ideas.
And if you do, I’d love to hear about it! Please reach out to me on LinkedIn or over e-mail, and perhaps we shall form a new connection outside of my corner of the internet that we’re currently in too :)
Happy reading!