I’ve recently tried to analyse the way I work and put myself into some kind of framework so that I could study myself more closely.

Since a lot of what I do is orchestrating things, people, processes, etc: I mysteriously landed on the term architect (perhaps because part of what I do is called information architecture).

Architects have a vision of the final result from the beginning, whereas a gardeners plant a seed, probably knowing what plant it is, but not exactly how many leaves or stems it will develop.

What is a WikiGardener?

This quote by Brian Eno is borrowed from Gordon Branders note on exactly this topic:

Since I have always preferred making plans to executing them, I have gravitated towards situations and systems that, once set into operation, could create music with little or no intervention on my part.

That is to say, I tend towards the roles of planner and programmer, and then become an audience to the results.

— Brian Eno, Music, time and Long-term thinking

This quote reflects my own general mode. I prefer planning over execution, so to make work efficient, I usually make a programme, or a set of rules that work is generated from, and like Brian Eno, I become the spectator.

Gardeners and architects are both planners

Comparing architects and gardeners is interesting because they both serve a similar role: They are planners.

Where an architect plans for a fixed, final result. The gardener plans for an organic growth into the result.

See digital garden

Top-down vs bottom-up planning

References

Digital Gardeners A github repo of ‘a collective of gardeners publicly tending their digital notes on the interwebs’