There's an irony that every web developer knows too well: the cobbler's children have no shoes. I've been building websites and web apps professionally for over two decades, and yet my own online presence has always been... well, embarrassing.
The Graveyard of Personal Sites
Over the years, I've started and abandoned more personal sites than I can count. There was the WordPress era (multiple times), the hand-coded HTML phase, a brief Storyblok experiment, and at least three 'I'll build it from scratch with [hot framework of the month]' attempts.
The pattern was always the same: get excited, overengineer it, lose interest maintaining it, let it rot. Sound familiar?
This Time It's Different (Maybe)
This site is built differently. Instead of a CMS or database-driven blog, the content is just JSON files. No admin panel to maintain. No database to backup. No CMS to update. Just files in a repo.
{
"title": "Hello World",
"date": "2026-02-01",
"tags": ["personal"],
"content": [
{ "type": "paragraph", "content": "Just JSON." }
]
}Want to write a post? Create a JSON file. Want to embed a tweet or LinkedIn post? There's a block type for that. Want to add code snippets? Already supported. It's the simplest thing that could possibly work.
What's Actually Here
This site serves as a directory for tools and apps I've built for my own use. Some are learning apps I made for my kids (like Workbook and Dictation), some are developer tools, and some are just experiments. They're all things I actually use - which is the best motivation to keep them working.
- Workbook - An interactive educational platform with JSON-driven content
- Dictation - A voice-powered learning app with 3D visualizations
- More tools coming as I organize and polish them
The site itself is built with Next.js 16, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and runs in a monorepo alongside all my other projects. The whole thing is open source on GitHub.
What's Next
I'm planning to add more tools to the directory, write about interesting technical challenges I encounter, and maybe experiment with embedding social media content directly into blog posts. The JSON-based blog system makes all of this trivially extensible.
If you're reading this, thanks for stopping by. If you're a fellow developer with an abandoned personal site - I see you. Maybe this is the year we both actually maintain one.