Welcome to my blog! This is my first post, and I'll share why I started blogging and how I chose Next.js as the platform.
Table of Contents
Why I Started Blogging 📝
I'm starting this blog to document my journey as a developer and improve my ability to put complex topics into simple words.
Writing also helps you sort out your thoughts and spot gaps in your understanding, leading to new insights and makes knowledge stick. Hopefully, this blog will be useful for myself and others in the future.
Why Not Other Platforms? 💭
Before settling on Next.js, I explored several options:
Blogging Platforms
Platforms like DEV.to and Medium are great for reaching audiences, but I prefer a more casual space to jot down my thoughts without overthinking. Plus, I want my own platform to understand the tech side.
WordPress
WordPress was my first choice since I'm familiar with it. It's great for a quick setup, but for a personal project, I wanted to focus on my developer experience. I'm getting a bit tired of its user interface and the PHP environment.
Headless CMS
I explored several headless CMS solutions, such as Sanity, Strapi, and Payload CMS. I even went through Sanity's tutorial - it's really nice, but it felt like overkill for a personal blog.
Documentation Frameworks
I also considered Docusaurus, a React-based static site generator developed by Meta. It's a great tool, especially for documentation, but it's a bit too opinionated about its styling system (Infima).
Why Next.js? ⚡️
I'm using Next.js at work and exploring its ecosystem. It's a modern stack that matches my career goals, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to enhance my skills.
To keep things minimal, I started with the official starter template and updated it to the latest Next.js 15 and Tailwind 4. However, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the changes. Even with the template, I still had to make several major updates.
New features and tools can boost productivity, but they also require regularly maintenance and continuous learning. This is exactly what I both love and hate about this field.
What's Next? 🐾
I'm excited to build it out as I learn more.
- Improve UI design
- Implement SEO optimizations
- Write posts consistently
Let's see if I can break my habit of starting blogs and never updating them. 😴