Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

Hi! I'm from New Jersey and I live in Brooklyn now. I studied Computer Science in college a lot time ago, and that led to a series of jobs at early-stage startups: I've worked on CAD software extensions, visualization tools, geospatial software, and programming tools. It can be a little hectic, the urgency to get these companies from point A to B, but I like it.

I've always had a lot of hobbies, and have kept most of them. Guitar, banjo, running, art, writing, gardening, hardware projects: having a few things to do is pretty important to me. The creative energy from one project can spill over to another, and you can get a fresh perspective by taking a break from some long-running task.

What's the story behind your blog?

When I started writing online in 2010, there were a lot of people leading the way. I remember SimpleBits and kottke, Rebekah Cox and David Heinemeier Hansson. Rasmus Andersson had a perfect look for his blog that heavily influenced mine. One of my earliest jobs, working at a company called Development Seed, encouraged us all to write. Bonnie Bogle, one of the founders, had worked professionally as a writer and helped a lot with editing and taught us all how to write for the web.

I write to think, so I do it all the time and not just for the blog. I keep paper journals. I like that quote on the back of all my Field Notes notebooks: "I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now."

For the current blog, I'm kind of proud of how little it's changed. It's so easy to just chase the latest blog software or design, but with my current blog I've been able to really restrain myself. I like the design and the technology just works. The content has definitely changed as what I've worked on shifted. There's usually some writing that's work-related, some that's about what I'm interested in now. I've added sections for photos and book reviews.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

I don't have a process for getting inspired or finding topics to write about. I just write about what I'm interested in and what I think is fun to share. So sometimes months go by without finishing anything, and sometimes it's four posts in a month.

It's scary when the inspiration doesn't come. Right now is one of those times: it's been three months since I wrote a standalone blog post. But I write one a month, always called "Recently," which is there to keep a cadence. The Recently posts have a consistent structure and are less of a commitment to write - I think they've helped me keep the habit through all these years.

I don't have anyone proofread my drafts. I make grammar and spelling mistakes all the time, and would probably benefit from an editor, but it's a solo operation, for better or worse.

I don't write outlines. Sometimes I'll write multiple drafts when I can't figure out which part of the topic is really interesting. I'll write long blog posts just to find the 25% that's actually good, and I'll keep just that part.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

I'm either incredibly neat in my own space, with everything on the table arranged at right angles, or writing on a laptop at a chaotic cafe. If I'm listening to anything when I'm writing, it's Tim Hecker.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

Sure! It's simple. The blog is generated by Jekyll, stored on GitHub and hosted on Netlify. I recently switched to using Cloudflare as my domain registrar – really happy with them so far. I also used Cloudflare to store photos, with their R2 service. I also have my own email address on the site, using Fastmail, which is fantastic.

And that's really it – it's a static site. I've made small changes to the tech stack like switching from GitHub Pages to Netlify and from Gandi to Cloudflare. But overall, I've used simple tools to make something simple and it has been unproblematic.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

Not really: I like how I have it set up. Maybe I'd use Hugo or Eleventy instead of Jekyll, just because it's annoying to set up Ruby on new computers. But Jekyll has been great otherwise.

It's easy to overcomplicate these things.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

The domain costs about $20 a year. Hosting images on Cloudflare R2 costs a few cents a month. Fastmail costs $5 a month.

Thanks to Brooklyn rents, these numbers are relatively insignificant to me.

I've tried a few things to monetize it: affiliate links, hooking up the Brave Browser's advertising system, and a ko-fi.com link for donations.

I also sell the blog's theme for $100, because people kept asking for it. But, I try to make it clear that if you just want to recreate it on your own or rip off design elements, be my guest, don't pay me!

I shut down the Brave advertising setup, which paid me in BAT tokens, because the annoyance of accounting for "crypto income" outweighed the income itself. I don't use affiliate links anymore – they were always a paltry income.

For me, I've had a relatively comfortable career in the tech industry. The most value that my blog has provided me is job flexibility and exposure. I feel awkward about the prospect of monetizing my audience and I have the luxury not to do so.

But that's not a universal experience at all, and I think it's totally cool and fair for anyone to monetize their blog. Some people have done really well that way!

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

I read enough tech stuff at work, so I don't really need programming blogs. I have a few RSS subscriptions that I still treasure: Cycfi Research is from a company that is building wild MIDI-compatible guitars out of carbon fiber. Zeptobars is a very focused blog that posts die shots - images of chips after the coating has been etched away. Drew DeVault’s blog is software engineering feats of strength and some very strong opinions. Light Blue Touchpaper always has some post about a mind-blowing security vulnerability. Language Log has wild language-crossover examples. And of course there's 100 Rabbits posting about their art, programming, music, and boat adventures.

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

Right now I'm spending a lot of time on Val Town, so check that out!