Handmade
“Handmade” has meant something to me for a long time, and what it means has grown. This page started more than a decade ago, when I hand-built my WordPress site, and I’ve kept that old page just as I wrote it. Below it is what handmade means to me now.
Handmade, then
My original page, around 2014
Handcrafting this website has really been an adventure! It’s pushed me in my knowledge of html, css, wordpress, hosting, subdomains, plugins and a bunch of other stuff you probably don’t want to hear about.
In short, it’s been fun and I’m learning a lot as I go. I have Leo at ZenHabits to thank for the groundwork and the inspiration to walk down this path.
I started playing around with websites when I was 15 and I’ve used all kinds of stuff: microsoft word, geocities, blogger, google pages, google sites, tumblr, weebly, wordpress and who knows what’s to come.
Lessons
Along the way I’ve learned a few things:
- Simplicity – the websites I love visiting are super simple
- Focus – it’s easy to get distracted online, I appreciate people who don’t distract
- Ads Suck – nobody likes ads, marketing, blah, blah, blah
With that in mind, I made my website focus on content and good writing and I’ve tried my best to respect you as a reader. I want you to enjoy coming here and I want to enjoy writing here. I want it to be a great experience for all of us.
Focus
You might notice a couple things this site doesn’t have:
- Any sidebars
- Comments
- Widgets
- Animation
- Popups
- Ads of any kind
Some stuff we do have:
- Simplicity – I tried to keep things minimal and clean
- Speed – the site responds quickly on any device
- Fading credits – so you can focus on the content more easily
I hope you enjoy it and if you ever need any help with your own site, let me know!
Handmade, now
A lot of that page still holds. I still love simple websites, I still appreciate people who don’t distract, and ads still suck. What changed is how far I could take it.
In 2026 I started handmaking my website again, this time all the way down: getting off of Squarespace and building it myself from the ground up, with plain files on my own server and my own homemade newsletter system instead of another platform. I’ve admired Derek Sivers for years, especially his idea of tech independence, and this is the first time in my life I’ve felt equipped to really build it for myself. My own server. My own email list.
I’m building it with AI, and that’s part of the point. Handmaking things doesn’t mean we don’t use great tools. Nick Offerman builds beautiful handmade furniture in a woodshop full of amazing tools. My AI helps me write the code; I write the words. Every Saturday essay is written by me, with no AI, from the thousand words I write each morning.
Here’s how that old list looks today:
- Sidebars – one now, and it stays quiet: a way to get the Saturday essay, and a free values exercise
- Comments – still none; reply to any essay and it comes straight to me
- Widgets, popups and ads – still none
- Animation – a little, for fun: pick a vibe from the palette button up top (80s, Mongolia, Lego, Mars), and some nights there are fireflies
- Speed and simplicity – still the goal, now with twenty years of writing in one place
You can watch the site grow in Evolution. And if I can do it, you can too — if you ever need any help with your own site, let me know!