As you may have noticed, things look a bit different around here, and it’s a long time coming.
When I first began to blog I knew very little about web development and didn’t want to interrupt my Python work to learn. So I picked a layout someone else had made and called it a day. And for the past 11 (!) months I’ve been hammering away at it.
It’s been a stalwart companion on my journey to learn software development, from my shaky command line days to my first stab at a web app, discovery of React, and more comprehensive work on a frontend and backend structure. I’ve talked about my successes and my failures, and I’m glad to have it as a record.
But the blog was shaky and it didn’t really feel like mine. As part of my current push to consolidate my online presence, a rework was necessary. Here are a few things I learned in the process.
1. Pick the Right Tools for the Job
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Steve, didn’t you just build a portfolio site?” And you’re right. I did. You can read about it here.
But it wasn’t very good. I was determined to prove that I was a Real Web Developer who Knew His Stuff, and I threw in so many bells and whistles that the whole thing started to look like the car Homer Simpson designed that put his brother out of business.
Relevant information was difficult to find and organization was nonexistent. The whole thing was built in React with Material-UI, totally unnecessary for what should be a static site. I didn’t even use Gatsby.
This site, on the other hand, is built with 100% grass-fed HTML and CSS, with a little sprinkle of JavaScript for pizzazz. It loads much faster, is much leaner, and tells an overall better story of who I am and what I can do.
You’ve always got to pick the right tools for the job. Don’t use a Cadillac to haul freight, and don’t use an SPA framework to build a static site.
2. Vanilla JavaScript can be Fun
Wait, where are you going? Stick with me for two seconds, I’ll be quick, I promise.
But not as quick as vanilla JavaScript! It’s a lean, mean, performant machine. It’s also much faster on the setup. No compiler, no bundler, just you and a text editor and a dream.
Of course there are many, many issues with vanilla JavaScript. Everything can take so long and writing a million document.getElementById() and appendTextNode() can be a huge pain in the ass.
But there’s a simplicity to it that’s hard to match, and there’s something very satisfying for me about just opening a text document, writing a few lines of code, and having it do something.
3. Don’t be afraid to start from nothing
My first attempt at restarting this blog featured the Jekyll quick start, but I soon found I didn’t like it. It included a lot of stuff I didn’t want or need. So I ended up wiping it and truly starting from scratch, with nothing but Gemfile and index.html.
It was a bit more work, but the end result feels like mine in a way that using the quick start doesn’t. I had complete control over how all of the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript was implemented, and I drew a craftsman’s satisfaction from that.
It’s like the difference between buying a table kit and visiting the lumber yard. Sometimes you just want to cut the boards yourself.
4. How You Present your blog content Matters
You may have noticed this post is a bit different than what I normally write. That’s because I’m trying to get with the picture. Over the course of moving my old posts over to the new site, I did a bit of reading on what makes for engaging blog content. Spoiler alert: it’s not my stuff.
My previous posts have been loaded down with huge paragraphs and bloated explanations that were difficult to read; even my own eyes just slide over them.
So I’m limiting the size of my paragraphs to make them easier to read. I also added larger margins around the text for desktop, simulating a mobile experience.
5. Your actual blog content matters, too
This blog has served as a technical diary of my work, and to that end I think it’s been decent. But it’s done nothing to showcase my writing abilities. I mean, I’m supposed to be an English major here.
Partly that’s because I’ve tried to spend as little time writing as possible so I could get back to coding, but it’s also just because I didn’t really know what to write. And, well, I still don’t, but I think this might be a better direction to go in.
Talking about what I’ve learned, how I market myself, how I stick to a regular coding routine, all feel more productive and interesting than just writing about my latest implementation of a Flask backend. Not that I don’t want to write about what I’m coding, but I’m going to try to limit that a bit more.
I still don’t really know what I want this blog to be and where I want it to go, but it’s been a long neglected aspect of my online presence, and I want to take some steps to change that. This feels like a good start.