Five blog rewrites in four years
I first started blogging in 2018. I used HTML, CSS and JavaScript—no frameworks or dependencies.
In 2019, I wanted to reuse UI components, so I rewrote my blog in React.
In 2020, I wanted to use MDX, so I rewrote my blog in Gatsby. I built my own internationalization solution. It worked, but had a few bugs that I didn't have the energy to prioritize properly.
In 2021, I wanted to learn Next.js, so I rewrote my blog in...Next.js.
Later in 2021, I wanted to ship less JavaScript, so I rewrote my blog it in Astro.
In 2022, I wanted this madness to end.
So I rewrote my blog in Docusaurus.
I did.
But I think it might be a good idea. These five years, I have been spending 95% of the time building the blog platform and 5% writing the blog posts. And I have realized I don't want to spend time building a blog platform. I want to write blog posts.
Sure, building my custom internationalization solution was fun. But it was not fun to maintain. I don't want to maintain a blog platform. I want to write blog posts!
With Docusaurus, I won't build a blog platform. I'm going to write blog posts instead. The platform is already there. Everything works. I can focus on what I actually want—writing blog posts.
I can breathe!