Notes Compound, Blogs Compile: When I Update a Note vs. Publish a Post

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Notes Compound, Blogs Compile: When I Update a Note vs. Publish a Post

Last updatedUpdated:<br>Aug 7, 2026

by Simon Späti · CreatedCreated: Feb 23, 2026 · 2 min read

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I like to collect notes over time on my Second Brain, and eventually, when I figure something substantial to share, something I learned, I write a blog post about it.

The second brain helps me to share whatever is in my mind , and the blog helps me to refine .

Notes are Compounding Note-Taking and are long-term updates, whereas blog posts are long-term too, but capture the current time of publishing. I share more about how everything compounds, including knowledge, in Long-Term Strategy for Blogging.

# Notes Compound

E.g. compounding note on this very site looks like this:

You see the last updates, the creation date (when it was created in my private Obsidian vault), and the published date, when it was first uploaded to this page.

So this note will continue to update on its own whenever I find something new to add, a link, or a thought, like this paragraph I&rsquo;m writing now. From Second Brain Design Updateswhich triggered this note to update, to then at some point compile into a full blown article as I have done at

Why I Still Blog — and Why the Future of Blogging Is Connected with my ten years of writing in public with many concepts from here, from Future of Blogging, etc. complied into a one time blog. This blog won&rsquo;t get updated. I might write follow-ups like this

The Process of Smart Note-Taking or even

The Act and the Outcome of Creation, but I won&rsquo;t change the old one.

But while these blog posts got published, I updated the notes they link to multiple times. So, the notes get updated over time and might lead to another blog post, or just serve as a separate artifact to read and learn in a more connected way .

# Notes and Essays: Compiler

No Boilerplate YT says it well and calls them notes and essay (blog) which the compiler gets, we get created:

Source:

What do you do after taking notes? - YouTube

These can also result in other Types of Writings, such as a book, other Types of Content Online, such as an abstract, dissertation, case study, etc.

# Paper vs. Digital

In a similar comparison, writing on paper vs. digital has also different meanings and values. See more at Digital vs Paper.

Origin:

@ssp.sh on Bluesky

References: Future of Blogging

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Interactive Graph

Table of Contents

Backlinks

Compounding Note-Taking

Note-Taking: Digital vs. Paper

Future of Blogging: More Interconnected

Smart Note Taking

Why Have Your Website (and not Medium, LinkedIn, Substack, ...)

Blog: Why I Still Blog — and Why the Future of Blogging Is Connected