The website exists as a personal space on the internet for myself. It's a primary hub for my online identity where I can share things that I find interesting. I quit social media a few years ago, so this site is more or less a replacement for the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.
Specifically, this is where I share work experience (though not intended as a "professional" website), images, essays, tutorials, technical notes, complaints about technology that I find annoying, and articles on a variety of topics. It also carries the responsibility of a personal wiki or sorts. I think that sharing these things publicly forces me to better flush out and fully articulate ideas. I think everyone should have a personal website. That said, sometimes posts don't age well and the drawbacks are that friends, family, and colleagues may eventually stumble across your low quality, half baked ideas and judge you accordingly - this is why I'll often go back and update a post or outright delete it.
It also serves as a means to learn about web dev fundamentals.
I started building this when I decided to cut out video games and most TV watching for three months - basically out of boredom not long after I deleted my social media accounts. Although I believe that some organizations benefit from existing on social media only in so far as there are people there to market to, my view is that these social websites have had a net-negative impact to both society as a whole, and to people individually. It has become a major timesuck in our day-to-day lives.
This website was assembled by hand using purely HTML and CSS after transitioning away from Wordpress. Everything is done manually. I do this primarily for more control and to learn more about basic web development. I'm a big advocate for doing things yourself. Although tedious at times, it's great not only for the self-sufficiency aspect, but also it's a fantastic way to learn new things.
The look and feel are intentionally minimalist in both design and how it was and is created. The "design" was heavily inspired by motherfuckingwebsite.com, bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com, and bestmotherfucking.website. I think plain-text is beautiful and that a lot of websites focus too much on design and not enough on actual content. I also love CLI which is how the site is primarily managed.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to send comments, questions, or recommendations to hey@chuck.is.
