zef.studio

My relationship with the internet has largely been readonly, but I’m trying to change that.

Sharing things on the internet has long been a difficult thing for me. There was a time when I felt like I didn't share much because I don't have anything to say, but I have realized that that's not really the case. I think it's more that I don't want to share much on the platforms I have had available to me.

Regarding the major social media platforms, they just aren't somewhere I want to invest my time and energy.1

I love the open, distributed, personalized web. The web in its purest, uncontaminated form. Personal websites epitomize some of the best of what the web has to offer, and I have long desired and intended to have one for myself.2

I want this to be my little corner of the internet that embodies the web that I wish were more ubiquitous. No ads. Just sharing a small part of my life with anyone who might be interested.

What Will I Post About?

To begin with, I intend to primarily post things that I've been making over the past few years — woodworking, leatherworking, metalworking, 3d printing, electronics, repairs, and things I'm learning as I pursue designing and creating physical objects.

I have a wide range of interests outside of those areas too, and ultimately I don't know what I will be wanting to share over time, but my goal is that this would be a place where I don't feel the need to limit myself based on what I think other people will be be interested in, but to do my own thing and follow my own whims.

I'd also like to share some travel photos, and perhaps share some occasional thoughts about some subject or another, though my intentions in that regard are much less formed.

When thinking about what justifies a post, I find there is a tension regarding what I think is worth posting and what isn’t. Even when writing this very post I doubt myself, and want to just throw the whole thing out. Why should I write the cliche “my first post” that exists on countless blogs, just prior to their probable abandonment? Who cares? Why would anyone want to read that?

My own insecurities such as these are part of what has inhibited me from contributing and sharing very much of my work online. This is something I'm trying to get over.

I've realized that the answer to the question "who cares?" really doesn't matter beyond the fact that I care. I want to do this for myself — even if nobody else reads it. With that mindset, I intend to treat it as a personal journal and archive of some of my projects. Somewhere to reflect on what I have made and what I am learning. Something that will be valuable to me for years to come, and to look back upon, many years into the future.

Of course I hope that people will find what I do here interesting and useful. I hope that people will engage with me. But I have realized that in order for me to do this, I need to primarily focus on the intrinsic value that I will get from the process of what I do here.

This is the beginning of that process.

Continuing These Ideas

This post touches on a number of subjects that I would like to elaborate on and think through more deeply. I intend to do this through some future posts, with tentative titles:

I mention this publicly as a small form of personal accountability to encourage me to follow through with publishing these posts.

So welcome. I hope you like it here, and that you come often. Even if you don't, I hope that at least I come often.

  1. I do intend to post links to my website on social media platforms, but using social media platforms as distribution networks is a very different thing than using them as content platforms.↩︎
  2. I have had a website for my software business, but it's never been a very personal place and it hasn't been something I'm particularly proud of. I designed and built it in the infancy of my software development journey, and I have seldom updated it in the past 10 years.↩︎