Hello World, Again
I'd like to show some gratitude and explain how the open web taught me that publishing and building for yourself is empowering, and why that matters even more today.
The lucky late Gen-X'er
This is my latest blog in a long series of them, and each one must begin with a bit of nostalgia.
I am extremely fortunate to be born in late 1970s middle class America and have access to personal computers from an early age. My father worked in sales for Apple in the 80's and brought home lots of gear. I started with a Macintosh Plus circa 1986, soon followed by an Apple IIGS, and so on. A highlight was setting up an AppleTalk LAN party playing Marathon 2.
In high school, the furthest depths I reached were a C programming class and writing games on the TI-82. I had a lot of access to tech, and a knack for it, but I wasn't sure if it would be a big part of my future or not.
That changed in college when I made my first thing on the internet in early 1997: a student government campaign site for a friend. The 5 MB animated GIFs I created sure looked cool, but annoyingly did not load quickly on my 33.6 Kbps modem. Despite that, and my friend losing the election, having the ability to globally publish whatever we wanted essentially for free was very empowering.
The rest of my college years coincided with the wild run-up to the "dotcom" era. When I was not in class, or working summers in corporate IT, I was running a small web design agency with my roommate, building websites for local businesses.
The tools of the trade were FrontPage, Macromedia Flash, Perl and a little JavaScript. Later it was MySQL, PHP, and some Java. That was pretty much it. The past 30 years of progress has been amazing. Today's beginners have much more to choose from, which is a blessing and a curse.
Looking back, I fully appreciate how fortunate I was to get started in the headwaters of the internet and I will never take those formative experiences for granted.
Here's what jumps out at me from this vantage point...
Create and distribute on your own terms
You have limited time on this planet and your creations matter. Share them while you can. Don't be afraid of embarrassing your future self; it's all part of the fun, and don't take yourself too seriously.
"When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people. So create." _why The Lucky Stiff
More importantly, own the means by which you distribute your content. Host your own sites or apps. Build your own blog. It's never been easier or more affordable to maintain full control without relying on platforms. There are many ways to obtain traffic, if that's your goal. Focus less on satisfying the platform, and more on building stuff that people will enjoy.
Writing is essential
"Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." — David McCullough
You don't need to publish your writing online, but you absolutely should write. Keep a journal in a text file on your computer or on your phone. It will help you ten times more than you expect.
In recent years I've noticed people are simply reading and writing much less because of language models. Cognition and critical thinking are like any physical skill: use them or lose them.
Give back
Small insights can have a huge long-term impact on the lives of others. Share your experiences and thoughts in a way that is uniquely yours. Be thoughtful and generous, but don't let the fear of imperfection or controversy keep you silent.
Publishing on the web for the first time felt almost magical. That magic still exists. The tools are more plentiful, the noise is louder, but the opportunity is still here. Make things, write often, publish on your own terms, and inspire the next person to keep this thing going.