Year of the personal site

I recently came across A website to destroy all websites by Henry Desroches. It's on the long side, but it's a beautiful read.

To summarise it: the modern Internet has been taken over by algorithms, commercial enterprises, and Big Tech. Where we once enjoyed hobby projects and personal blogs sharing carefully curated thoughts, we've lost much of that to clickbait and hot takes in a bid for eyeballs.

I stopped using Twitter and Facebook a while ago. I realised I was just being surfaced the content those platforms wanted me to see. Anything I shared would reach nobody — or, worse, somebody in a corner of the Internet who's there to hate everything. There was no value in it for me anymore.

I do still use other platforms, but I'm largely passive. I'm watching people do great things that are then lost in a sea of noise. We could lose that great thinking forever. It's more important now than ever to carve out your own part of the web.

I've had this personal site since starting university. I've dipped in and out of love with the idea, but I always come back to the fact that it's my slice of the web. I could upload literally whatever I want here and share it with the world — and that's great.

The core tenet of Desroches' essay is simple: build your website. Start small, reduce friction to posting, and share what you make. All things I want to do more of in the coming year.

There are plenty of articles I read and appreciate but never pass on. I rarely share what I make or what I learn outside of my peers. I don’t really big up others either. It's time to change that.

For now, at least, the energy is there. Like every YouTuber you've watched for any length of time, I'll say I'll start sharing again soon — and keep it up for a bit. Who knows, it might even carry on.