This Site is a Playground
January 12, 2024
Note: This site is a "breakable toy." I intentionally rebuild it, swap tech stacks, and try new patterns. That's the point.
Why Rebuild?
This site has been Next.js, Remix, vanilla React, and probably a few things I forgot. Each rebuild teaches something new.
Current stack:
- Next.js 16 (fresh from release)
- React 19
- MDX for writing
- Tailwind CSS 4
- Deployed on Vercel
What I'm testing:
- How fast can I ship with modern tools?
- What breaks when frameworks change?
- Which patterns actually matter in production?
The Learning
Speed matters. Rebuilding this site takes a few hours now. That's because the tools got better, but also because I know what not to build.
Complexity is a choice. No database. No auth. No analytics dashboard. Just markdown files and simple deployment. Most sites don't need more.
Defaults are good. Modern frameworks ship with sensible defaults. Fighting them usually makes things worse.
This site will change again. That's fine. Each version teaches something that applies to client work.
This is where I experiment. The lessons show up in production systems.