Orphan Note Analysis
Date: 2026-01-31
Analyzed top 25 orphan notes (no incoming or outgoing wiki-links). Recommendation for each.
Should Link (High Value)
1. PERT estimation
Content: Estimation technique using optimistic/pessimistic/likely weighted average. Recommendation: Link to agile/estimation concepts.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[Story points]] - related estimation concept
- [[statistics]] - uses weighted averages/distributions
Notes that should link TO this:
- Sprint planning.md
- Story points.md
Verdict: ✅ Should link
2. Customer Interviews
Content: Rich framework for user research interviews - questions, tactics, solution criteria. Recommendation: Product development hub note material.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[fake door experiment]] - related product research
- [[Gathering customer feedback]] - sibling concept
Notes that should link TO this:
- Product Lead Growth.md (once linked)
- interviews.md (if about product interviews)
Verdict: ✅ Should link
3. Escaping the Rewrite Trap
Content: Camille Fournier talk on platform team rewrites. Excellent tactical content. Recommendation: Strong platform engineering content.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[Accelerate]] - related to delivery performance
- [[continuous delivery]] - rewrites affect delivery
Hub notes that should link TO this:
- llm-assistant/hub-platform-engineering.md (already created)
Verdict: ✅ Should link
4. tech debt workshop
Content: Detailed workshop format for tech debt prioritization. Very actionable. Recommendation: Valuable methodology content.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[Accelerate]] - tech debt affects DORA metrics
- [[batch size]] - smaller debt fixes = better
Notes that should link TO this:
- Escaping the Rewrite Trap.md - related topic
Verdict: ✅ Should link
5. Learning through Writing
Content: Metacognition, engagement with text, references Gary Bernhardt, Trevor Foucher, Sydney Dekker. Recommendation: Meta-learning note worth connecting.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[post-incident analysis]] - mentions Dekker's work on human error
Notes that could link TO this:
- knowledge-base.md
Verdict: ✅ Should link
6. SAST tooling
Content: List of static analysis security tools with brief description. Recommendation: Should connect to security ecosystem.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[Supply Chain Security]] - SAST is part of supply chain
- [[shift left on security]] - SAST enables shift-left
- [[SemGrep]] - listed vendor (bidirectional)
Notes that should link TO this:
- SemGrep.md
Verdict: ✅ Should link
7. SemGrep
Content: Brief note on SemGrep’s CVE reachability analysis. Recommendation: Should link to SAST tooling.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[SAST tooling]] - parent category
- [[Supply Chain Security]] - SCA use case
Verdict: ✅ Should link
8. An overview of python data science libraries
Content: Good overview of numpy, scipy, pandas, matplotlib, seaborn, BeautifulSoup. Recommendation: Foundation for AI/ML work.
Suggested links TO add:
- [[statistics]] - scipy/pandas stats connection
- [[Machine Learning]] - foundational libraries
Notes that should link TO this:
- Gradient-Boosted Decision Trees.md - uses these libraries
Verdict: ✅ Should link
9. Figuring out owners for github repos
Content: Practical scripts for determining repo ownership via contributor/team analysis. Recommendation: DevOps/governance content.
Suggested links TO add:
- None obvious, but useful standalone reference
Could be linked FROM:
- A future "repository governance" or "innersource" note
Verdict: ⚠️ Fine as orphan, but could link to governance concepts if they exist
10. Weekly status reporting
Content: JQL and GitHub search queries for status reports. Recommendation: Practical reference, minimal linking value.
No obvious links needed - it's a utility note.
Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan
Should Remain Orphans (Intentionally Standalone)
11. Mom’s Journal
Content: Personal archive of mother’s college journal entries.
Tags: noexport, personal
Verdict: ✅ Correct as orphan - personal archive, not knowledge management
12. therapy
Content: Likely personal notes. Verdict: ✅ Correct as orphan - personal
13. Knight movement
Content: Chess visualization for knight moves.
Tags: chess
Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - hobby content, could link to chess.md if desired
14. knots
Content: Categories of knots (bends, hitches, loops, etc.) Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - hobby/life skill, no obvious connections
15. wow specifications
Content: World of Warcraft class/spec preferences. Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - gaming notes, no knowledge connections
16. rands leadership slack
Content: Just a URL to the Slack workspace. Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - it’s a bookmark, not knowledge
17. USDS
Content: Brief note about United States Digital Service interviews. Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - personal career note
18. Joe Stump / Noah Puckett
Content: Empty people notes with noexport tags.
Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - contact stubs
19. vtex
Content: Brief company description, noexport tag.
Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - company research note
20. Product Lead Growth
Content: Empty note with just frontmatter and alias “PLG”. Recommendation: Either flesh out or delete.
If fleshed out, should link to:
- [[Customer Interviews]]
- [[fake door experiment]]
Verdict: ⚠️ Stub - needs content or deletion
21. knowledge-base
Content: RDF/SPARQL experiments for knowledge graph querying. Recommendation: Interesting technical exploration.
Could link to:
- [[Community detection in graphs]]
- [[Clustering within org-roam notes]]
Verdict: ⚠️ Could link to graph/clustering notes
22. Security Engineering
Content: Stub with TODO, noexport tag.
Verdict: ⚠️ Stub - needs content or deletion
23. Things I find myself repeating
Content: Personal maxims/principles. Verdict: ✅ Fine as orphan - personal wisdom, self-contained
Summary
| Category | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Should link | 8 | PERT, Customer Interviews, Escaping Rewrite, tech debt, Learning through Writing, SAST, SemGrep, Python DS libs |
| Fine as orphan | 12 | Personal, hobby, stubs, bookmarks |
| Needs attention | 3 | Product Lead Growth (empty), Security Engineering (stub), knowledge-base (could link) |
Recommended Edits
If you approve, I can suggest the exact wiki-link additions for the 8 “should link” notes. Example for PERT estimation.md:
A mechanism of estimation I'd not heard of. Related to [[Story points]] but uses probability distributions from [[statistics]].Want me to draft the specific edits for your approval?