Original video in Chinese.
Key Takeaway
- A Wiki is the “map” of a content system: articles are flowing rivers (one-off expressions), while a Wiki is a structured knowledge map that organizes 200+ scattered pieces of content into searchable, interlinkable entity pages, topic pages, and clue pages, letting readers quickly understand the complete system of ideas and the connections between concepts.
- Turn “continuous output” into a “long-term asset”: a Wiki prevents old content from being buried by new content, making content productized; new readers no longer need to dig through hundreds of articles to understand things, and can enter the author’s world directly, upgrading a personal brand from “someone who keeps outputting” to “someone who has a whole system of thought.”
- A must-have for long-term creators: 99% of creators are dragged around by traffic and make isolated content; a Wiki lets old content keep working, and it is the most worthwhile long-term investment for content creators (you can quickly build one with the newtype OS /wiki command or Karpathy’s method).
I believe there isn’t any blogger or social media creator who has done a Wiki like I have.
Over the past two years, I’ve published more than two hundred pieces of written content, including video scripts and newsletters. All of this content is on the newtype.pro website.
Once the content grew, the problem came up:
It became difficult for readers to fully understand my system from the content alone.
This is especially true for new readers. It’s hard for them to know: what exactly have I been talking about all this time? Which concepts are core? Which articles are entry points? Which viewpoints are related to one another?
So I decided to build a Wiki and structure these long-term pieces of content to completely solve this problem.
A Wiki is different from an article. Simply put:
Articles are rivers. A Wiki is a map.
Articles are for expression. A Wiki is for accumulation.
An article is more like a one-time expression, with opinions, context, and narrative. A Wiki is more like a knowledge map, responsible for preserving definitions, relationships, paths, and background.
When building the Wiki, those repeatedly appearing concepts, tools, products, methodologies, and people-related threads were pulled out and organized into knowledge pages that are searchable and can link to one another.
Then readers can quickly understand a concept through the Wiki first, and then follow the related articles on the page back to the original content, seeing how it was first proposed, expanded, and used.
That is the benefit for readers. And for content producers like us, the value of a Wiki is turning “continuous publishing” into a “long-term asset.”
Because the Wiki organizes the things I keep talking about into stable entry points, new readers no longer need to go digging backward through hundreds of articles, and can quickly enter my world.
When my viewpoints are no longer just scattered articles, but instead become a knowledge base that can be navigated, cited, and expanded, my personal brand changes from “someone who keeps outputting” to “someone who has a system of thought.”
This is called “productizing a content system.”
I said in the Knowledge Planet that very few bloggers or social media creators can do this, and this is what I meant.
99% of people are dragged around by traffic. The content they make is all isolated points, all serving traffic, and it is hard for them to have systematic thinking.
And even if you do have it, because of continuous publishing, old content is quickly covered up by new content, and the viewpoints, cases, and methodologies you’ve accumulated over the past few years can easily become assets known only to yourself.
A Wiki can reorganize all of this content and let old content keep working.
So if, like me, you plan to be a content producer for the long term, then a Wiki is absolutely a must-have.
As for how to do it, I previously posted a video, the one introducing Karpathy’s method. You can find it and watch it. If you already have my newtype OS installed, then you can easily create one using the built-in /wiki command.
OK, that’s all for this episode. If you want to learn about AI, want to become a super individual, and want to find like-minded people, then come join our newtype community. See you next time!