self-development, intellectual curiosity, and peer-learning, these communities have widely varying business models, from freemium to premium.

Small is beautiful: moving away from large knowledge sharing communities such as Stackoverflow, niche knowledge sharing communities are emerging. Based around communal values of

“Information and communication technology’s most important contribution to knowledge sharing in communities consists of the realization of a shared information base (communality) and facilitating communication independent of time and place (connectivity).”

People are being paid to think. Indie thinkers spend their time asking questions, researching niche topics, connecting ideas, and share their newly acquired knowledge online for people to consume.

From fragmentation to integration: more recently, Memex has launched a feature which allows users to export highlights and notes to many formats and platforms, including Roam Research. However, while these signs of integration are promising, many tools for thought are still currently hard to work with together, and multi-tools workflows can be... See more

in public” mindset is the digital garden, where indie thinkers cultivate their knowledge in public. For instance, the use of Git-based solutions such as GitBook lets users explore the evolution of ideas, their contributors, and the various branches of knowledge being explored.

Instead of sharing the end product of their research, users are increasingly comfortable learning in public and publish their process, including any mistakes or dead ends. The epitome of this “learning

users to collaborate on their learning journey

Finally, new tools for thought help users learn and recall information, often by using spaced repetition, whether through flashcards or daily digests