All Notes
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🌲 Evergreen Notes
Well-developed ideas, refined over time
Cake
A booking and business platform for tattoo artists. I'm the CTO. The app runs on Cloudflare.
Morning Paper
A real paper every morning, from your private newsroom. An agent composes a finite daily edition and the CLI renders it to print.
My Working Notes
I'm Devon Meadows. Dad. Thinker. Tinkerer. Right now I'm CTO at Cake. These are my working notes.
Printed references turn recall into recognition
A visible wall sheet moves unfamiliar commands out of working memory until repetition turns them into muscle memory.
Ads Lab
Where it all started. A Skool community teaching advertising. Won the Skool Games, proved the model, then evolved into Main Branch.
Awake Happy
A clothing brand that taught me passion without economics doesn't work. Winding it down now. Those lessons feed directly into Main Branch and Noontide.
Build in Public
Share your work as you build it. Show the mess, the decisions, the failures. Don't wait for polish.
Main Branch
A Skool community where people build AI that knows their business. Structured reference files in, real outputs out. The engine is the product.
Noontide
The company behind Main Branch. A small team building AI-powered business tools.
Skool
The community platform I run Main Branch on. Gamification done right. Recognize top contributors with visible badges, make progress tangible.
The Commune box
The vision for Commune is a physical box you own at home. That vision is now running on my shelf. Thoth, a 2018 MacBook Pro, works as an always-on AI agent node.
Thoth
A 2018 MacBook Pro running as an always-on AI agent node on a shelf. Handles automated jobs, morning briefs, and signal scouts while I sleep.
Commune
The project behind this wiki. Voice capture flows into atomic notes, readers navigate via explicit links. A lot of what I envisioned for Commune showed up in other tools.
Deep Research: Creator Platform Pricing
2024-2025 sentiment analysis on creator platform pricing. Key finding: creators hate hidden fees and revenue share at scale. $9 entry + 0% fees at $49 wins.
Deep Research: Digital Garden Tech Stacks
Static vs dynamic architecture research for digital gardens. Astro 40% faster for content-first sites. Hybrid recommended: Astro wiki + Next.js agent dashboard.
Deep Research: Hardware Ecosystems
Research on successful 'box' products like Raspberry Pi, Umbrel, and Home Assistant. Key lesson: software-first, hardware optional. Validate PMF before custom hardware.
Deep Research: OSS Business Models
Research on how companies like Plausible, Ghost, and Obsidian built sustainable open source businesses. Bootstrap model validated: $2-3M with 4-18 people.
AI shapes voice dumps into atomic notes
Dump thoughts while walking. AI shapes them into atomic notes. Review in iOS app. Refine with more voice. Infinite game of hammering notes into 150-250 word format.
Andy Matuschak's Notes
Andy Matuschak's note-taking system pioneered the concept of evergreen notes with sliding pane interfaces and dense linking.
Ask the Brain
Ask a question, get an answer that cites specific notes. No invention. If it can't cite, it doesn't answer.
Atomic Notes
Each note should express exactly one idea. This is a key property of Evergreen Notes that makes them reusable and composable.
Auto-generated OG images for notes
AI generates OG images for notes automatically. Template-based, regenerates on major edits. Required for SEO/GEO but manual creation doesn't scale.
Cursor
An AI-powered code editor that changed my mindset about what's possible with LLMs and agents. Showed me the future of working with AI.
Discovery runs on time, follows, and why
I do not want a For-You page. I want time and intent. Discovery starts with two lists. What I made and who I follow. Sort by updated time. That is it.
Evergreen Notes
Notes written to evolve and compound over time, not dumped into an archive. Foundation of personal knowledge management.
Homepage cards triage discovery
Two cards below the home note. Left shows backlinks (expandable). Right shows recent activity. Triage users to interesting content without overwhelming them.
Intelligent commit summaries replace verbose logs
AI analyzes git commits daily and generates smart summaries of what you're working on. Clusters by theme, weighs by significance. No verbose logs.
See what I'm working on
AI analyzes my commit history and shows you what I'm actually working on. No raw commits. No algorithmic feed. Just a smart summary of my recent thinking.
Manual note refinement doesnt scale
I used Reflect with a "higher self" prompt to refine my voice dumps. Had to manually select transcripts, run analysis, copy/paste formatted output, update the prompt. Too arduous. Couldn't get my data out. That's why I'm building Commune.
Mobile preview without breaking flow
Desktop has preview panes on hover. Mobile needs something equivalent that lets you peek at the next page without breaking flow.
Obsidian
A local-first note-taking app with markdown files and a plugin ecosystem. I tried it before Reflect but couldn't make it stick.
I hope people will pay for a working mind
People pay for polish. But I think the world is shifting. People will pay for access to a working mind over polished outputs. At least I hope so.
Preview panes preserve reading flow
Previewing links before clicking keeps reading flow unbroken. You can peek ahead without committing to navigation.
Reflect
A note-taking app with end-to-end encryption, daily notes, backlinks, and AI integration. Clean interface. But you can't get your data out easily or run automations on it.
SEO-optimized atomic notes
Atomic notes formatted as articles create more entry points for search and LLM discovery. More potential hits than traditional blog posts.
Subscription unlocks depth into the mind
The simple view of Commune is free. You get a tease. But anything that gives you depth into the mind is subscription based, like Substack.
Suggestions and Proposals make readers part of the work
Readers can suggest fixes or additions. I review and approve. Changes show up in the changelog. Pull requests for thinking.
The higher self prompt
I created a note in Reflect called "the higher self" with all my favorite books, articles, and methodologies. I'd run AI analysis over my voice dumps to get advice from my higher self and refine the prompt over time.
The home note triages to your best ideas
The home note is the first note when you land on a Commune-powered site. Everyone needs to design their starting note. It triages readers to your best ideas.
Three panes deep, then you pay
Commune lets creators gate their wiki at any depth. Three panes is the default. Land on home, click twice more, hit a wall.
Daily walks attract downloads
Taking a 30-60 minute walk in the early afternoon protects deep work and mental presence with family—plus you get downloads from the universe.
Deep work shields attention
The goal when at the computer is deep work—focused, uninterrupted thinking that produces real output. Everything else threatens it.
Film production taught me context management
Worked at Lightiron (acquired by Panavision) as a machine room operator, then DI producer—learned to manage creative teams and information flow. Preferred the machine room.
Gamification drives self-discovery
The right game mechanics help people discover who they are and make a living doing it—that's the dream behind Commune.
Networked thinking reveals hidden connections
Building a wiki where notes link to each other lets you see patterns you'd miss otherwise. Cross-domain insights emerge when ideas can connect freely.
Private AI outperforms cloud AI
AI running on your hardware with access to all your data beats cloud models trained on generic internet content. Context wins.
The Star
A Commune feature marking notes that anchor key ideas in your wiki—top 5% by backlinks, inspired by Skool's approach to recognizing contributors.
Associative linking over hierarchies
Knowledge is naturally networked, not hierarchical. Associative links between concepts create more flexible and discoverable information structures.
Auto-essay closes the loop each week
Longform should be a by-product of work, not a second job. The agent scans the ledger, clusters the week by topic and momentum, and drafts 700–1,200 words in my voice.
Follow and Collect keep signal, not hype
Follow is for updates. Collect is for taste. That is enough social. No likes. No karma. No hidden rank.
Local-First Software
Local-first software prioritizes user agency by keeping data and computation on user-controlled devices while enabling collaboration when needed.
Manual file management is a high-friction waste of cognitive resources
Traditional file organization systems consume mental energy that should be spent on creative work, not digital housekeeping.
Notes beat posts for showing progress
Posts slow you down. Notes ship now. A post wants a mood and a full arc. A note makes one claim, links two or three neighbors, and moves on.
Related and Stroll give serendipity without a feed
Every note carries a few links in the prose. Each link explains itself. The right rail can show a Related list, but the real work happens inside sentences.
Titles are takeaways, not labels
A title should read like a conclusion. Labels slow readers and weaken Ask the Brain. A sharp title makes a short note land.
Data sovereignty for individuals
You should control your data the way nations control their territory. No third-party should own or monetize your information.
Learning in public accelerates growth
Making your learning visible creates feedback loops. People correct mistakes, suggest resources, open opportunities.
Local systems require Enhancement Dashboards for user-in-the-loop model training
Local AI needs a UI for correcting mistakes. User feedback trains the model. The dashboard shows what needs review.
Network effects in knowledge work
Knowledge compounds nonlinearly. Each new note connects to existing notes. Value increases faster than linear growth.
Release is a monthly human wrap
Once a month, review everything you captured. Write a human synthesis. What mattered? What connected? What changed your thinking?
Deep Research: Platforms for Authentic Self-Discovery
Outside research on platforms where people work things out in public and get paid for it. Polish is not what anyone is paying for. The relationship is.
Deep Research: Cross-Platform Portability
Which layers of an AI toolchain survive a change of tool. The brain travels because it is Markdown in a git repo. The convenience layer does not.
Deep Research: Practitioner Research Tools
What people who research for a living actually run, in January 2026. Nobody uses one tool, and the thing holding the stack together is context management.
Deep Research: Taste Mechanisms for Tier Upgrades
Letting someone hold the paid tier converts two to three times better than describing it. When nobody upgrades, the gap is usually imagination, not price.
Deep Research: Writing Craft
Strunk's rules, what AI copy smells like now, and what makes prose worth reading daily. The tells that survive are structural, and uniform cadence is the loudest.
Transparent decision-making builds trust
Showing why you made a decision builds credibility. Hiding the reasoning creates suspicion. Transparency compounds trust over time.
Unscheduled quick calls destroy deep work
Quick calls are never quick. They shatter focus and steal 15-20 minutes of recovery time after the interruption ends.
Zettelkasten Method
Slip-box system for atomic notes with unique IDs and dense linking. Developed by Niklas Luhmann. Foundation for modern networked note-taking.
🌾 Seed Notes
Early thoughts and rough captures
Substack
Newsletter platform—you can read the first half, subscribe to get the rest. Similar freemium pattern to Commune's depth gating.
Accurate transcription requires training the model on personal proper nouns and context
Speech-to-text accuracy depends on teaching the system your specific vocabulary, names, and contexts
Business management is fundamentally the management of expanding context
Running a business is really just managing an ever-growing amount of context that needs to remain accessible
Defaulting to No for unscheduled calls protects deep work
Protecting focused work time requires saying no to spontaneous interruptions, even when they seem urgent
Externalizing thought builds a cognitive scaffold for solving complex problems
The practice of making your thinking visible creates feedback loops that enhance problem-solving capacity
Integrated data analysis unlocks observations impossible in siloed systems
Connecting all your data sources—business, personal, creative—enables insights that are invisible in traditional separated systems
A sufficiently intelligent router eliminates the need for traditional project management
Automated context management makes traditional PM tools obsolete by capturing and routing all work naturally
Owning your data infrastructure eliminates the need for specialized middleware and roles
When you control your full data stack, you can eliminate many traditional business roles and middleware solutions
Deeply personalized AI can analyze relationships and optimize communication strategies
AI with access to complete relationship history can help optimize how you communicate with specific people
Reality is often framed in esoteric traditions as a spiritual game of hide-and-seek
Many spiritual traditions describe existence as a divine game where consciousness hides from itself to experience the joy of rediscovery
The router's primary challenge is updating knowledge bases tastefully and non-destructively
The technical challenge isn't routing information—it's integrating new context without degrading existing knowledge
The ultimate paradox of the spiritual search is realizing the Hider and the Seeker are the same
The deepest spiritual realization is that the divine consciousness seeking itself is the same consciousness that chose to hide in the first place