Andy Matuschak: evergreen notes — atomic, concept-oriented, densely linked, accreting over time
Claim: Andy Matuschak's public notes (https://notes.andymatuschak.org) introduced "evergreen notes" — notes that "evolve, contribute, and accumulate over time, across projects" (updated 2023-07-13). The principles: atomic (one concept per note), concept-oriented (titled like APIs), densely linked.
Quote: "These notes are mostly written for myself: they're roughly my thinking environment."
Related framing (Matuschak, crediting Robin Sloan): "One of my favorite ways that creative people communicate is by 'working with their garage door up.'"
Source: https://notes.andymatuschak.org/About_these_notes, https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Evergreen_notes, https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Work_with_the_garage_door_up
Confidence: Verified (primary).
Use for Candid: The methodology this very KB applies. Each entry here IS an evergreen note in Matuschak's sense. But: Brief 3 warns the "digital garden" label is a B2B liability — reframe as "research-backed knowledge base" in client-facing copy.
Referenced by (5)
- reference Astro Content Collections (stable since 2.0, modernized in Content Layer API late 2024): Zod-validated frontmatter, build-time TypeScript types relates-to
- reference Research brief: The knowledge-base-backed website (piece 3 of 15) relates-to
- reference Reference: research-first tooling stack 2026 — Obsidian + Git + Quartz/Astro + AI overlay (RAG) relates-to
- reference Reference: 8 named exemplars of research-first/docs-as-product methodology — Stripe, Twilio, Anthropic, Gwern, Matuschak, Appleton, BAM, Construction Physics depends-on
- rule RULE: Foundation research before article, article before marketing page. Never write the marketing page first. depends-on