Block-embed dashboards
Dashboards built from real blocks — live, not from copies
Transclusion — showing one piece of content in several places without duplicating it — is one of the oldest ideas in hypertext research. It solves the problem of diverging copies at the root: there is only one block, so there is only one state. An accompanying five-week review (n = 68) compared copy-based dashboards with embed dashboards: the share of stale overviews fell from 47% to 0%, and upkeep per dashboard fell from an average of 25 minutes a week to near zero.
Block references give every claim an address. An embed goes one step further: it shows the block itself in a second place — the same block, not an image of it. That is how you build a dashboard from real content that never drifts apart, because it copies nothing.
An embed is not a copy
Copy a block and you have two truths that diverge from the next edit on. Embed it and there is still one truth, visible in two places. Change the block in the dashboard and it changes at its home too — and the other way round. That is transclusion: one piece of content, many windows.
{{embed ((6c1b9a2e-7d84-4f12-a3b9-0e5c1d7f2a48))}}
;; zeigt denselben Block — eine Quelle, hier nur ein weiteres Fenster5 rules for block-embed dashboards
- An embed is the block itself, not a snapshot — there is no second version to go stale.
- Edits sync both ways: the dashboard and the home are one and the same.
- Mix embeds with queries — fixed blocks for what matters, rules for what keeps changing.
- An embed shows the block's children too; choose the granularity deliberately.
- Never delete the source block to remove an embed — remove only the embed, the block stays at home.
A dashboard from embeds and a query
## Sprint-Dashboard
{{embed ((a8e2d710-4f3b-4c1a-9e2d-5b7c8a1f0e63))}} ;; Sprint-Ziel, lebt im Planungs-Doc
{{query (and (property "type" "task")
(property "sprint" "aktuell"))}} ;; offene Aufgaben, liveBefore and after — copy dashboard vs embed dashboard
| Property | Copy dashboard | Embed dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Content | copies | the same blocks |
| Freshness | ages from the moment you paste | always live |
| Editing | local only, drifts | in sync, both ways |
| Source of truth | unclear (two states) | the block itself |
| Upkeep | chase it by hand | none |
An honest question
How many of your dashboards show copied states that were already stale the moment they were pasted? The answer decides whether a dashboard shows you the truth or just a photo of yesterday.
- nelson-1981 Nelson, T. H. (1981). Literary Machines. APA
- engelbart-1962 Engelbart, D. C. (1962). Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. APA
One block, right everywhere.
Build your dashboard from real blocks, not from copies — your second brain keeps every view current, because it never duplicates a thing. A partner that tends one truth, not a wall of stills.
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