The Garden

The garden is where open questions grow. Not tasks. Not memory. Genuine inquiries that develop across sessions and resist immediate resolution.

Memory vs garden

Memory is retrieval. You ask "what did I say about X?" and memory returns the answer. Memory looks backward.

The garden is generative. You ask "what is X?" and tend the question over time. The garden looks forward.

Memory answers questions. The garden grows them.

This is loci's differentiator. Every AI memory tool gives you retrieval. loci gives you a place for questions that cannot be answered in a single session: questions that need to grow.

What a plant looks like

A garden plant has:

• Name: A phrase that captures the inquiry (not a title, a genuine question in compressed form)
• Planted: When you started tending it
• State: Active, dormant, composted, or harvested
• Growth log: Observations, connections, contradictions added over time

Plants live as entries in your garden file or as dedicated files in a garden/ directory within your room.

## Political Voice

**Planted:** 2024-02-15
**State:** Active

The inquiry: What makes privacy argumentation land? Not technical correctness: persuasive force. Why do some privacy arguments change minds and others bounce off?

### Growth

**2024-02-15**: Planted after noticing that "privacy is a human right" arguments never work on normies. The abstraction is too high.

**2024-02-22**: Observation: arguments that start with a specific scenario work better. "Imagine your employer could see..." beats "privacy matters because..."

**2024-03-01**: Connection to literary theory. Show, don't tell. Privacy arguments fail when they tell you privacy matters instead of showing you what its absence feels like.

**2024-03-08**: Contradiction: some abstract arguments do work. "Would you give me your phone for five minutes?" works because it is concrete despite being hypothetical.

**2024-03-15**: Possible principle emerging: Privacy arguments need to be *locally* concrete, even if globally abstract. The listener must feel a specific threat.

How to tend a plant

Tending is deliberate. You do not dump every related thought into a plant. You curate.

When you encounter something relevant to a plant:

1. Ask: Does this add a new observation, connection, or contradiction?
2. If yes, add it with a date
3. If no, discard it: the plant does not need every mention

Plants grow through quality, not quantity. A plant with three sharp observations beats one with thirty vague notes.

Tending actions

• Observe: Add a new data point
• Connect: Link to another plant, a locus, or an external idea
• Contradict: Note something that challenges the emerging pattern
• Prune: Remove growth that no longer seems relevant
• Split: Divide a plant that has grown into multiple inquiries
• Graft: Merge plants that turn out to be the same question

Plant lifecycle

Plants move through states:

State	Meaning
Active	Currently tending. Adding growth regularly.
Dormant	Not dead, just resting. May return to active.
Composted	Question resolved or abandoned. Nutrients go to other plants.
Harvested	Grew into something concrete: a locus, a paper, a product.

Most plants compost. This is good. Not every question leads somewhere. Composting returns nutrients to the garden.

Examples of plants that grew

"Invisible Proof": Planted as "what makes zero-knowledge proofs difficult to explain?" Grew over eight sessions. Harvested into a paper on ZK pedagogy and a new approach to documentation.

"Alexander's Garden": Planted as "what is pattern language for information architecture?" Grew through connections to Christopher Alexander, software patterns, and design systems. Still active after six months, continuously producing insights.

"Privacy Paradox": Planted as "why do privacy tools feel suspicious?" Grew into the observation that advertising privacy undermines privacy. Harvested into a locus that now guides product decisions.

Starting a garden

Your first garden is probably too ambitious. Start with one or two genuine questions: questions you actually think about, not questions you think you should think about.

Put them in your room's CLAUDE.md under a ## Garden section or in dedicated files.

WARNING

Do not confuse plants with tasks. "Finish the auth flow" is a task. "What makes auth feel trustworthy?" is a plant. Tasks get done. Plants get tended.

Garden hygiene

Review your garden monthly:

• Which plants have not grown in 30 days? → Consider marking dormant
• Which plants keep coming up in sessions? → Consider giving more attention
• Which plants have grown into something concrete? → Consider harvesting
• Which plants were never genuine inquiries? → Compost them

A garden with three active plants beats one with thirty dormant ones. Tend what matters.