This website is a public space for my musings and projects. I love to write, and I am a prolific producer of internal documents, guides, and memos. However, I’ve been reluctant to share my thoughts publicly. I’m hoping this site will push me to do so more often, invite critique, and improve my skills.
My Goals for This Site
- Have Fun: I have a lot of passions and a lot of opinions. I want this site to be me and I want to have fun with it. If I want to write about D&D or Brotato, I will.
- Write and Think Better: I’m a private person and I think that’s often a good thing. At the same time, it can limit my ability to learn and interact with others. I want to create an obligation to share publicly, receive criticism, and grow.
- Make New Connections: When I get bored, I like to read lobste.rs. Many of the posts come from personal sites and I follow the authors from there. I’m a peculiar person, I’d like to meet other peculiar people.
Prior Attempts
If history is any indication, I’ll probably give up, but maybe not! I think this is my 3rd or 4th version of a personal website. Hopefully this one will stick. Here’s what happened with the others.
financeidiot.com
My first personal website was financeidiot.com (no longer active). I wrote a few posts there when I was into the financial indepence retire early (FIRE) movement. I was interested in FIRE, but I felt insecure posting about financial topics (hence the self-deprecating name) and after 2-3 posts, I didn’t have anything new to say. A financial strategy that boils down to: (1) high income, (2) low expenses, (3) low-cost index funds, and (4) waiting doesn’t require regular updates. The Mad Fientist and Finance Buff have already written what I would say better than I could.
skepticalconsulting.com
For a few weeks, I tried to start writing at skepticalconsulting.com, but I gave up almost immediately. The intent was to drum up business for Skeptical Consulting, but I didn’t have anything to say other than, “I would like your business, please.” Other demands in the business took up my time and I lost interest in public writing entirely.
Vibe-coded willhea.com
After financeidiot and Skeptical Consulting, I lost interest in having a public presence until I started sharing guides and standard operating procedures I had written with friends through Notion public pages. I wished I had a public place to share that documentation and while sharing Notion can be effective, it did not have the same feeling of commitment as publishing on a website.
Around the same time, I took a strong interest in Replit and Python. I completed the Replit 100 Days of code Python course in full and had a blast! Part of the course required using Flask to setup simple Python websites and when I upgraded to the Replit Core plan, I had a lot of free credits leftover for hosting.
I bought the domain name and vibe-coded willhea.com 3 different ways in Replit. I knew I wanted to write in Notion or as Markdown files because that format has always felt easiest to write in. After a few days in Replit, the final version looked exactly how I wanted!
It was also overkill for my needs: posts were stored in Markdown and in a PostgreSQL database. There was an admin page to view analytics, an editing page for adding posts, and a resume editor. The problem was that I didn’t use it for anything. I wasn’t writing and it was an endless set of tweaks to make a perfect website with… nothing in it.
Back to Markdown
After reviewing my Replit site for a final time, I realized that I need to write, I prefer writing in Markdown, and no amount of fancy code is going to replace me sitting down and typing. If I can solve the problem of writing, I can figure out everything else later.
To that end, I’ve built this site using the Hugo static site generator. This post provides more detail on how. Note: I previously built this site with Pelican.
What’s Different This Time?
I’m not a betting man, but if this has failed a few times before, why is it going to succeed this time?
First, it probably won’t. Second, I think this time might be different for three reasons:
- Low Pressure: If no one reads this site, I’m ok with that. This one is for me.
- High Energy: I’ve been filling up on creative energy for a few years and I haven’t had an outlet. Just writing this article is making me feel better.
- Empty Space: I’m taking a sabbatical and have plenty of time.
We’ll see what happens.