Rebuilding my website && back to blogging

#musing

Welcome again to my humble abode on the internet.

This is my personal website and blog. I had one before but I decided to build a new one, mainly because my personal website has always been a living place for me to experiment with the latest technologies and new tools.

The stack went into building this#

Here are the transitions I made for building my new website:

  • language: JavaScript → TypeScript
  • framework: React → Preact
  • meta framework: Gastby → Next.js
  • architecture: Static site generation → Incremental static regeneration
  • hosting provider: Netlify → Vercel
  • content: .mdx → Notion → .mdx
    • Notion has recently released their API so we can use Notion as a CMS. However it is limited to their immediate responsibility area and MDX is much more flexibille, e.g. displaying the exact React components that you are documenting. That's why after trying out Notion as the CMS I still went back to MDX.
  • css solution: Styled Components → Tailwind
    • I still suck at this part of web development but it truly feels like CSS is an effectively solved problem with Tailwind CSS. I cannot imagine ever writing CSS in a separate file and having to think of names for elements.

I don’t think I have enough knowledge for now to compare Gatsby with Next.js but I can sort of understand why Vercel could attract top talent from the community - the experience I had with their products is truly amazing. Anyway, I had fun building this little website and I have learned a great deal from this.

But why write a personal blog?#

Because I have something to say: tell stories, teach something I’ve learned that I want to articulate to others, share opinions that I've had. I don’t do podcast nor do I stream, so the only way to express them is in the written form. And writing scales infinitely.

Last year I only put out 3 blog posts. One of the reasons I didn’t write consistently was simply because I was not sure if my content was original enough or good enough. I have dozens of drafts sitting somewhere in my hard drive that never see the light of the day because I don’t think they are good enough. I think we are all good at being the lousy judge of our own work.

I believe this is what they call impostor syndrome and that needs to be combated. I have decided to try a more regular blog cadence and record more of the thinking and process of whatever I am going to be doing. I am not going to broadcast every waking thought but I truly think I just have not been blogging enough. I will start writing more in order to get comfortable with my writing/content creation process.

Anyway, I am starting out with pursuing consistency over quality. See you soon.

Further Reading#