Publish your notes instantly

There should be as little friction as possible between the act of writing and the act of publishing. Publishing almost instantly is paramout for several reasons:

• You cannot hide clutter on a web browser;
• Publishing gives you a broader perspective. Being able to navigate through one’s notes in a browser gives a perspective that you cannot get in a text editor. This is not just about finding typos or adding a few links, but about breaking down notes, merging some ideas, and sometimes gettings new ideas. It helps you write better notes.
• Publishing is rewarding. It helps create a habit: the more you publish the more you will want to write.

These are rewards you reap whenever you get something out there. But self-contained notes do not need any extra work, they can be published as is. Progress is better measured in small chunks, and published notes are proofs of your thinking evolving <&ahrens2017>

My current setup #

There are currently too many steps between my fingers typing and you seeing this on the internet:

• Save the org file
• Go to the directory where the files for the website are located
• make build to re-build the modified pages
• git add && git commit to add the new files to the repo
• git push (and the site is automatically built and publish)

I need to reduce the number of keystrokes. org-roam-ui is graphical frontend that can be used locally to visualize one’s notes. You are made conscious of the clutter, get a broader perspective, but publishing online is more rewarding.