Half the links in essays I wrote five years ago are dead. Quoted passages saved in plain text are not.

The lesson isn't "don't link." Links are the connective tissue of the web; if you stop linking, you're just shouting into your own room. The lesson is always quote what you're linking to.

A dead link plus a saved quote is still useful. A dead link without one is a hole in your own thinking. Future-you will not remember what was at the URL.

This is a small habit but it has paid out massively over time. Some of my best notes are anchored to quotes from sites that no longer exist. Without the quote saved inline, the note would be a fossil.

Related: Plain-text everything.

Comments

Comments are moderated. No email, no IP collection.