About

What is this place?

37 Pencils is a digital garden—a collection of ideas that grow over time. Unlike a traditional blog where posts are published and then forgotten, ideas here exist in different states of maturity and get tended to as thinking evolves.

Some thoughts are seedlings (fresh, possibly half-formed), others are growing (developing but not quite there), and a few are evergreen (relatively stable, though nothing is ever truly finished).

Who tends it?

Hi, I'm John Haugaard, the person behind this garden. I'm interested in photography, post-Bop jazz, odd thing I observe, and on, an on. I started this space to think out loud, connect ideas, and share what I'm learning and thinking along the way.

The name "37 Pencils": Well, sometimes you get an idea, and then it veers off in the most unusual directions. Suppose someone hears an anecdote about children in some countries being "entitled to" 37 pencils. And this leads to ideas about US tariff policy, and this leads to an idea about changing consumption patterns. You see, that is an idea that definitely grew sideways.

Why a garden?

Traditional blogs encourage performative writing—everything needs to be polished and complete before hitting publish. A digital garden inverts this. It's okay for ideas to be rough. It's okay to revisit and revise. The process of thinking is as valuable as the result.

Plus, I find the metaphor delightful. Ideas really do grow sideways, branch unexpectedly, and occasionally need pruning.

Say hello

The best way to reach me is - this info coming soon. I'm think I'll be happy to hear from fellow gardeners, or anyone who wants to discuss ideas that show up here. Yet to be determined.

• Email: [email protected]