Code isn’t just a tool—it’s a reflection of the coder’s mind, a part of their soul turned into logic. When I write code, it becomes mine. I take care of it, I understand it, I think about it. Even when I stop working, the code stays with me, like a thought I can’t let go. It feels alive, like something I’ve created, something that matters.
But when the code comes from an LLM or someone else, it’s different. I might use it, but I don’t really make it mine. I don’t take the time to fully understand it. I let others—or the machine—do the hard work. And often, it feels easier to just start over or forget it.
This kind of code feels distant, like it has no home. It’s less work for me, and that can feel good, like letting go of something heavy. But at the same time, it feels empty—like something is missing.
Maybe when we stop owning our code, we lose more than just control. Maybe we lose a piece of what makes coding human.
// Functionally correct. Morally bankrupt.
// Just like the rest of us.
We used to boot a computer and even a modem and be actually productive and enjoy life without checking for news, notifications, or email every 15 minutes.
Sans version control conflicture crap due to using Git-ware conflict-friendly patterns?
We used to just work together on code and discuss code, without focusing on the version control tooling.
Sans CI/CD tools to validate your work?
We used to validate our work before committing, in the old days.
Sans markdown?
We used to be able to read and write text without non-sense formatting, HTML was even a thing.
Sans proprietary note taking digital tools (Obsidian, Notion)?
We used to take notes on paper or in our own text editors in the past and format our notes in "raw" HTML.
Sans LLM for coding?
We used to reason about code and go read a programming language book or ask for help from colleagues in case of doubt.
Sans daily upgrades and ads and other modern web crap?
We used to have nice experience with computers.
In a world that used to be simple, what other "sans" would you can think of?
This is a meta post you will find on various blogs nowadays, anyway I find the answers so interesting when shared by other people, hence are mine.
The questions are:
Why did you start blogging in the first place?
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
Have you blogged on other platforms before?
How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
What's your favourite post on your blog?
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?1.
1. Why did you start blogging in the first place?
I wanted to share cool links to free games and free apps, in french, and mostly because I couldn't find such specialized blogs in the French speaking community.
2. What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
My first blog was hosted at Jeuxvideo.com, it was about free and open source video games and apps. Then I pivoted to blogotext hosted on free.fr to write about some productivity tools.
Following the hype I tried static site generators such as Hugo and Zola without much success as it was painful to feel like debugging whenever I wanted to maintain the tooling or customize my blog.
I've migrated the content of my blogotext to a WordPress hosted on OVH and that got me back into writing, for a time at least.
Nowadays I'm using WordPress managed on my Cloudron instance and hosted at Hetzner on my own VPS. I like the stability of WordPress and the ease to just be able to write anywhere using any device, any browser. Without caring about the maintenance of any tooling, upgrades etc.
3. Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
I tend to write best when I don't overthink, yet I suffer ADHD and I have 51 blog posts in draft state, I can't help.
4. Have you blogged on other platforms before?
I've only posted on a hosted platform in the past which was jeuxvideo.com. I do not believe anymore in the longevity of platforms after exiting a few social networks and few forums and communities. I've also observed the death of platforms I had invested time into.
5. How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?
Right in the WordPress editor, in my browser (btw, it's Brave).
6. When do you feel most inspired to write?
When I need to escape my thoughts and surrounding. When I'm expressing a problem or rant or anxiety. Or when I have to think clearly about a topic or elaborate my answer to an existing thread.
7. What's your favourite post on your blog?
Not posts but likely the 😵💫 Guilty page which is about things I like too much.
8. Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
I'd like to keep the tooling minimal with HTML or plaintext. I do not like Markdown much, likely I'm a nostalgic.
I have learned one good lesson from tasting someone's else food, it's never salty enough and I always miss the good drink pairing or something else is missing. And I'll feel bad for making any critique or special request.
I have a similar feeling about apps, tools and platforms I don't maintain. Sure i can help fixing them with requests that will likely be forgotten in their backlog. Or I can pick an alternative product which will unfortunately lack features from the former or will have their own ux issues, bugs, weirdness...
In the end I'll flavor ones that focus on simplicity and which provide good documentation and support for data import/export and customizations through their API or through plugins and scripting.
Miniflux, Shaarli, Obsidian, Dropbox, Cloudron....are those kinds of apps and platforms I use that do a thing well yet I have customized to my taste, e.g of such personalizations:
Dropbox is automatically organized based on custom rules, all orchestrated through cron jobs.
Bookmarks in Shaarli are tagged automatically thanks to a plugin I've made available in my shaarli_plugins Git repository.
My apps hosted in Cloudron are restarted automatically on schedule if they stop responding, thanks to some cron jobs and Cloudron's API.
Music I download on-the-go from my mobile phone through Seeker (Soulseek client) is synced automatically to my storage and visible in my Navidrome and Subsonic clients; so I do not need Spotify. It is also orchestrated via cron jobs, using rsync and syncthing.
Notes I take on my Obsidian at work and at home are synced automatically thanks to Syncthing an Git on my personal Gitea server.
highlight links I've already bookmarked in Shaarli.
add one-click buttons Add to Shaarli / Follow in Miniflux next to each link mentioned in those articles depending if it's some RSS feed or a random link I might want to bookmark in Shaarli.
Email attachments related to our financial activity are archived in our Dropbox and renamed automatically based on their content, using OCR. The whole thing simplifies communication with our accountant and their software.
My monthly invoices are generated automatically from InvoiceNinja and I'm looking at a solution using only Python.
I keep building more, I'm working on my own tools to supplement or replace InvoiceNinja, Shaarli, Wallabag, Obsidian and Miniflux. The fewer apps I rely on, the more focused I become.
Relying on my own recipes, scheduling things though cron jobs and building my own platform saves me costs, improve my computer experience and make me more efficient about problem solving.
It also likely make me a bit lazier and annoying.
You can be more efficient too, and I can help if you like!
Contact me to learn how to master of your digital life.