Rebuilding This Website

This website is a departure from my old philosophy, I have shifted from performance to experience. Previously my website was 16kb and loaded in 50-100ms. Blazing fast, minimal, and static. It was an experiment in how simple a website could be, and in many ways it was delightful. However, its speed didn't make up for its rough edges, it was difficult to add custom pages and its design was lacking. I considered Substack but found it lacking too. So I sought inspiration for a redesign, and while going through Dead Simple Sites I found Shu Ding's website. I borrowed many details, including layout, font choices, and transition animations. I believe result is timeless and elegant.

I decided to build without MDX or any other content layer. After experimenting with MDX, I realized it added subtle constraints that I didn't want to be limited by, so I opted for pure React in Next.js. This allows me to embed any component anywhere—creating an interactive medium through which I can express my ideas. Handcrafted. Simple. Expressive. A blank canvas for my thoughts.

The next challenge is writing those thoughts. I have many aspirations, many old notes which I enjoy sifting through, but it is difficult and time consuming to cut and polish them into gems. There is fear too. Fear of being judged. Fear of failing. Fear of doing something new.

At worst, that fear consumes me—leaving me stranded between my old life and my new self. At best, I alchemize it into motivation. Faced with the choice between the pain of conformity and the pain of individuation, I choose the latter.

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.

I don't know what lies on the other side of this experience. But I'm excited to find out. If you're here, I hope you'll stick around. There's more to come—whatever it ends up becoming.