Thinking Tools: From GitHub Repository to Readable Knowledge Base
How dogfooding revealed a usability problem - and the rebuild that fixed it
I spent the last few months building a collection of 520+ reasoning primitives extracted from 34 domains - everything from accident investigation to competitive game theory to emergency medicine. The source lives at reasoning-tools on GitHub.
Then I did what you're supposed to do: I used it.
The Dogfooding Problem
For several weeks, I read through the knowledge base to sharpen my understanding and familiarize myself with the broader landscape of ideas. The principle is simple - eat your own dog food, or in plain terms: use your own product.
What I found was uncomfortable but valuable: the raw GitHub repository was terrible for actually reading and learning.
The problems were obvious:
- Long markdown files with dozens of tools crammed together
- No structure to guide navigation or comprehension
- Typography that made scanning difficult
- Hard to remember where you were or what you'd already read
- No way to bookmark or share individual tools
In other words, it didn't feel like a book, or a reference manual, or anything else designed for humans to actually read and comprehend 520+ tools.
The Rebuild
I decided to rebuild it with a simple goal: make it readable.
Requirements:
- One tool per page - bookmark it, share it, reference it
- Mobile-first - read on your phone during commute
- Dark mode - night reading without eye strain
- Multiple navigation paths - by domain, by application, by problem type
- Book-like reading - cover to cover if that's your preference
Technical Implementation
I built a small pipeline:
Break the monolithic markdown files into granular, single-tool pages
Use MkDocs Material to generate static HTML with professional typography
Inject cross-links between related tools
Deploy to Cloudflare Pages at thinking.denis-darkin.xyz
The result: a searchable, navigable, readable knowledge base that actually gets used.
What You Can Do Now
📚 Browse by domain
See all tools from Bayesian Statistics or Military Strategy
🔍 Search across everything
Full-text search through 520+ tools
🔗 Share specific tools
Each tool has its own URL
📱 Read on any device
Responsive design, works everywhere
🌙 Toggle dark mode
Comfortable reading any time of day
🧭 Multiple paths
Navigate by domain, problem type, or application
The same research process that built this taxonomy is what I apply to understanding client domains - systematic exploration, synthesis, and structured documentation.