I thought it might be nice to do a chronology of my personal websites but realized I don't have archives of about half of my stuff. Note to self: start getting better at this.

But above, you can see a collage of just some of my websites from 2019-2024, the ones I bothered to screenshot and place into Figma. Not pictured: websites from 1999-2018, motion, landing pages, the few instances I made "professional" websites to get jobs. Some are long, some are sparse. Some follow the principles of good UX, others are crafted for the sake of making something cool and interesting to me. Some were based off templates, some were hand-coded from scratch. Some, now, looking back, I like more than others, even to the extent of surprise: actually, I was onto something here. Each one reflected changing versions of myself, and somehow also, the basic same undercurrent. 

I wish more people were into websites, not as a utilitarian end of funnel sales tool, but as a space they own and can craft to their heart's content. A place with a point of view. I once said my resume led me here, but I haven't looked at or updated my resume in years. I am still always tinkering with my website. Like right now. 

In the works: a link list not unlike the ones I grew up with on an earlier internet (had an internal debate: do I do this in Notion for its knowledge management superpowers or do I do it right here as the early web intended?). For the past decade or so, I've been following the internet "gold rush" just like everyone else: condensing myself into the preferred format of the modern internet, dripping people "content" through social media and then more recently, Substack. But I'm kind of over that. Not necessarily over social media or Substack, because I use and love both in moderation. But the idea that this has become the default way of creating presence in the digital world. "Go where the people are." That's just smart, isn't it? 

What would it be like to just give people all of it at once, and to update as new things enter my world? I mean, sure, I'm asking people to come back rather than popping up in a conveniently packaged feed. Sure, there's that little piece of friction. But personally, I can think of a lot of people that I'd so love to dive into their favourite links, get a piece of who they are without the performance or packaging. 

People talk about websites being dead, but why should anyone visit something just because it's there and pretty? Make it worth visiting, not just a place to conduct transactions. Like in life, my philosophy now reflects my backtrack from minimalism. I want everything around me to be a casual altar to what I value. I want a website to be a garden, alive and deep. Not a sales page but a portal. That's not an easy ask. It requires time and cultivation. (I've been doing this for 26 years, since I was a kid.) Dare I say, it requires creating a bit outside the box. The box isn't an invisible one. It's the obvious platformed, algorithmic internet where everyone is condensed into a stream. 

But the obvious upside to cultivating your personal website? I mean, besides the fact that it's fun. You get to be more than a strung together series of posts, you get to build a place.