The first version of this site was launched in 2017. Back then, I wasn’t very technical. I certainly couldn’t write any kind of code, unless you count SUM(A1:A10) in Excel as code! The logical choice was Wordpress using a template, and it actually worked fine. It did the job of showing my existence to the world, as I had just started being an independent consultant for small businesses. Just in marketing, at the time.
Then, around 2020, I was tired of paying to host what was essentially a static site, and I was getting more comfortable with development, so I thought I’d rebuild it as a pure html/css bundle of files, with a tiny custom script that would convert markdown to elements, basically translating things like # Header 1 to <h1>Header 1</h1>. To be totally honest, it looked really nice, and I had put a lot of time and care into it, but life and billing hours got in the way and I stopped working on it before it was completed. I was still tired of paying for hosting though, so I just found some random WordPress -> SSG converter, ran it through, and then hosted the same (albeit a bit broken) site on Cloudflare Pages instead.
Fast-forward 2023, I’m proficient with development now, especially with Python / Flask / Jinja2 due to a previous (failed) project. Pelican looks like the obvious choice if I want to do something efficiently. AI is starting to be useful with GPT-4 just launched, that actually doesn’t just spew out garbage all the time. Feels like the right time to rebuild, I won’t get stuck on an obscure configuration and get flamed on StackOverflow for asking a question that was maybe half answered in 2012, but there were 12 major revisions since and the answer isn’t even close to my issue, but it’s still because I didn’t do my research. But I digress. I get going building again, with a template this time. I remember the previous one failed because of lack of time and life/billing hours getting in the way. What happens then? Life/billing hours get in the way. I never finish.
Fast-forward to today, in 2026. I’m even more proficient now (one could say I’m senior, maybe? Hate the term) and can solve most things on my own. I’m having tons of fun building half baked insanities I’ll never show anyone using AI. Then, lightbulb moment. Is my “lack of time” issue solved? I’m able to pump out tons of side-projects using my phone, 5 minutes at a time, while sitting on the toilet, between sets at the gym, waiting for my leftovers to warm up in the microwave. I realize that my previous issue wasn’t lack of time per-se, it was lack of focused and uninterrupted time. That’s the specific kind of time I don’t have, because I use it for two things:
- Selling it to businesses that need my skills.
- Spending quality time with people that matter to me.
I have tons of tiny moments that were previously wasted, but that I can now put to good use. Instead of doomscrolling, I can whip out my phone, open ChatGPT Work and get tiny bite-sized work sessions add up to this complete website rebuild. It’s surprising how many small moments like these can add up to something bigger over time!
I will write a detailed post about the actual workflow I used to create this in another post. But yes, if you’re wondering, the code is 99.9% AI generated. I did touch a few config files here and there, when it was faster to do it myself than ask an agent to do it for me. But the big thing - I mostly didn’t review the code.
Why would I? It’s an SSG with a form. There’s no DB, no auth, no user data, and no server (unless you consider Cloudflare Workers a server). Are there ways to shoot do stupid thing? Of course, because this is software and apparently there are bad people out there that won’t let us have the nice things. But the attack surface is tiny. I checked the few parts that actually accept outside input. My config is solid. My credentials are safe. Is the rest spaghetti? I have no idea. And I don’t really care.
The main quality? The site is published and I don’t have to obsess over whether each line of code is elegant, whether it’s DRY enough, or to battle against stupid build packs that need a specific version of that obscure package a single developer has maintained forever but stopped because he was rightly pissed (relevant XKCD).
I can write things on it. Yes, me, as a human (see my AI Disclosure page). Writing for writing’s sake! Pure bliss.