Home – 42M

How to make a simple blog like this one (or even simpler)

This page was initially titled Stats for nerds (because I am a sucker for wordplay, and I wanted to mock YouTube). But it was never meant to be nerds-only.

So yeah, if you are indeed a nerd, just go to my public repo and look around.

If you’re not, and you’re afraid of code repositories, I’ve got you covered.

This website has been made with:

Love is clearly the most important ingredient, but let’s focus on tech first.

Tech 🪄️

The key takeaway is that you don’t need to bother with tech, unless you want to.

Just go with Bear Blog or Mataroa and make a brain dump for yourself.

Write, publish… et voilà, you shared your thoughts with the world!

I, for one, really enjoy the process of crafting a 142% custom blog for myself.

Still, my top priority is putting words online with no friction whatsoever.

Here’s all I need to do:

  1. Open a text editor.
  2. Write my post/page.
  3. Publish automagically.

And here’s what I use:

  1. Markdown to format plain text (it takes literally seconds to learn).
  2. Hugo to generate the actual pages (based on my simple templates).
  3. GitLab to host my source code (and help with backup and automation).
  4. Netlify to build, deploy, and update the website (all without supervision).
  5. Porkbun to get a custom domain name (42m.me) – and oink to the moon. 🐽️

Registering a domain is crazy cheap (~10 $/year), all the rest comes for free.

If you’d like to know more about how I manage my website, feel free to ask.

If you are a wannabe nerd, here’s my advice: start with the basics (HTML and CSS) and focus on the fundamentals (core principles of human psychology).

Also, three things you may find useful to get started:

  1. freecodecamp.org has nice, interactive, hands-on courses on coding.
  2. nngroup.com is a web usability bible, albeit heavily business-oriented.
  3. mnmlist.com may help you notice how much you don’t need, and let go of it.

You’ll learn the hard way, but fret not: DIY is tons of fun!

Now you can go. Get inspired, copy, experiment. Go and do your thing!

You have my blessing. And you have my code. AND MY AXE! 🪓️

Love ❤️

We can finally get back to our top priority.

Here I gathered a few resources that I find uplifting. Not only for bloggers and web devs: they’re for just about anyone – especially creative/artistic people.

And then there’s a nice quote at the end of each section, to sum it all up.

Dilige, et quod vis fac. [Love! And do what you want.]

—Aurelius Augustinus, In Epistulam Ioannis ad Parthos (Tractatus VII)

Design

Most times, designs don’t fail because we can’t solve a problem well. It’s because we’re solving the wrong problem.

—Aral Balkan, Privacy, Data, Democracy (The Conference, 2015 – min 8:05)

Communication

Even if you’re not a teacher, be a teacher. Share your ideas, don’t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn, and… spray it!

—Tim Minchin, Occasional Address (aka 9 Life Lessons – min 8:54)

Development

If you say you want to do something, do it! Never blame outside forces stopping you. Work around obstacles to start immediately.

—Derek Sivers, Version 0.1 = Start lo-fi

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Now that I’ve learned to look at things with the lens of simplicity, I can see others making mistakes I’ve made in the past.

I want to gently say to them — and to my past self — “Stop making things so complicated!”

—Leo Babauta, Stop Making It Complicated