Time for a refresh! My personal website was last updated three years ago and has gotten stale. For the past year I've been interested in looking into small web projects. Exploring projects like the Kagi Small Web and aboutideasnow have sparked a desire to build my own tiny little plot on the internet to nurture and grow.
I'm not a designer. I'm a Python developer who spends most of their time building models and integrating with systems. I can make things work, but I can't make them look pretty. My objective with my personal website is to have a clean and simple design that's easy to maintain. I want to focus on sharing things I'm learning and building rather than the design.
I saw a tweet from Dillion Verma showcasing an easy to use portfolio template. I love how simple and clean the design is! Forking the repo and after a few modifications I had a clean looking website customized for myself. The template is so easy to use. If you're considering a refresh of your own portfolio I highly recommend checking it out.
A few things I wanted to focus on with this refresh:
Tending a garden of ideas
A couple years ago I learned about the idea of digital gardens. I've seen them pop up in places in one form or another. Thoughts evolve with time and a digital garden can help capture that evolution. The implementation of a digital garden is to treat each little plot like a collection about a contained topic. Instead of writing individual posts on the topic and linking them with a tag all the content is distilled in one place. A changelog captures key evolutions of the idea over time.
I don't know how successful I'll be with this format, but it's my website and I'm going to experiment! You can checkout the first seed I planted over at the garden page to see what's growing!
Be human
Previous websites have been too formal. More portfolio-like rather than being really personal to myself. I want to change that. One way I'm doing that is by adding a "Now" page to showcase the other parts of my life I'm invested in. A place that's a little more fun and personal.
Starting fresh
Frankly, I don't like most of the stuff I've written in the past. I don't really know how much of that content would work if someone were to follow those posts today. So I'm letting them go! My interests have changed and I'd rather invest my time into what I'm excited about today rather than trying to retrofit old content into the new site. I might revisit some pieces and update them, for now it's about being in the moment.
Have fun!
Finally, this is my space and I want to have fun with it. There's no template I'm following. I just want a place where I can share what I'm learning and building. Experiment with different formats and see what works best for me.
So thanks for checking in! I'm looking forward to sharing more updates soon!