Alan Hudson

Knowledge gardening

Complexity is the context, gardening is the practice

Knowledge gardening is how I nurture an interconnected, evolving and emergent network of knowledge about complex social systems, gathered around open learning questions and drawn on to cook up interesting things. Engaging effectively in a complex system requires an iterative process of action and learning; a regularly tended garden lets ideas emerge, connect and mature over time, and keeps them tied to action.

My knowledge gardening practices are intentionally aligned with the complex nature of the landscapes they are meant to inform. I tend the garden, and the connections that make it more than the sum of its parts, in much the way I try to engage with complex social landscapes: attentively, iteratively, focusing on relationships and with an eye to what might fit the context.

My knowledge gardening workflow

My garden lives in Tana Outliner, the software I’ve been using to manage knowledge for the past four years. Claude, an AI assistant, helps with much of the routine tending. The work flows through four stages, resting on a fifth.

  • Gathering: Reading, listening, watching, meeting people and reflecting. I highlight articles and videos in Readwise Reader and podcasts in Snipd, and the highlights flow into Tana Outliner alongside my notes from meetings and events.
  • Cultivating: Tagging each source and note with the topics it relates to, so that one insight can serve many questions. I link notes to the learning questions I’m exploring, tending the most promising ideas as they move from germinating to blossoming to harvesting.
  • Cooking: Drawing on the plants and produce I’ve nurtured in the garden, to create things for particular people: a synthesis, a briefing, a reading list, a presentation, a project proposal, a blog post.
  • Sharing: Offering what I’ve made, here, on LinkedIn and in conversations, and taking in what others offer back, which informs the next round of gathering.
  • Managing, learning and adapting: Regular rhythms keep the garden alive: a weekly tidy, fortnightly tending of individual ideas, a monthly look across the wider landscape for what’s ripening, and a monthly look from my current projects at what they need from the garden.

My mum's top tips for gardening

My mum is a seasoned and skilful gardener. When I wrote about digital gardens in 2023, she sent me her top tips. I find they work just as well for tending ideas.

  • Choose plants that are appropriate to aspect, soil type, and conditions.
  • Do not have so many plants that there is not enough time or energy to give them adequate care.
  • However attractive a plant is, do not buy it if it will not fit in or flourish in the garden.
  • Dead-head flowers to get more blooms, and do pruning to keep control/keep in shape. Also, as for tomatoes, restrict the number of shoots and fruits so that there will be a strong plant and good fruit.
  • Tend the garden regularly, little and often, and take time to notice the growth and change, hopefully to be pleased about it.

Find out more

Curious about knowledge gardening for your own work? Let’s connect.