After 10 years on the web and dozens of projects, it still took me 3 years to build my own digital home - ratu.dev. What should've been simple, turned into a monument to procrastination and perfectionism. But hey - it's finally live. ๐
During that time, I went through maybe three versions of leerob.io and even more of rauno.me. While I was rewriting it in Astro, Next.js shipped view transitions. While I was writing โAbout me,โ my family ๐จโ๐จโ๐งโ๐ฆ and the world around me (โช๐ดโช๐ช) - including myself - changed a lot.
I even managed to:
- write my own SVG renderer for line animations with gradients (a fun detour that probably cost me half a year).
- buy random domains - ra2.dev, ratwo.dev, and other "clever" ones that played on the similarity of my name and surname ๐
- build ~20 personal projects that never saw the light of day.
- host the site everywhere:
VercelโHetznerโEC2โCloudflare Pages(open-next) โAWS Lambdas(open-next) โ and back toCloudflare Pages
I know the mantra - perfect is the enemy of good. After years of working in enterprises, it's drilled into me. But I always thought when it came to my own stuff, it was different. Turns outโฆ it wasn't.
At last, I've closed that loop. And it feels good.
Inspiration list
Custom blogs that pushed me forward:
- leerob.com - one of the first that inspired me, pure minimalism.
- maximeheckel.com - unique blend of design, implementation, content, and transparency.
- rauno.me - endless experiments, new concept every half a year.
- paulstamatiou.com - 20 years of blogging ๐คฏ
- https://www.joshwcomeau.com/ - the attention to detail is simply off the charts
- jahir.dev - ~13 redesigns ๐คฏ
- ped.ro
- olivierlarose.com
There are many more, but these are the ones I've bookmarked and followed over the years.
Summary
- Over-engineering kills momentum. Fancy SVG renderers are fun, but they don't get your site out.
- Shipping something simple beats endlessly tinkering.
- Consistency is the foundation. What's even better is consistent focus - no distractions. I see that as the most overlooked power today. Nothing else would matter (talent, motivation, ideas) unless you have consistency and focus.
What's next? It took me a while to bring this blog to life, but I know writing meaningful content is even harder. LLMs might make the process look simpler, but in reality they've raised the bar - nothing will feel meaningful or gain attention if it can be easily generated by an LLM in one shot, unless you give it a unique angle. It's the same as back in the day: if something was already covered in Google results, writing the same or worse made little to no sense.
The good news is that it forces us to aim higher - to write with more creativity, honesty, and perspective. And that's motivating. It makes me reflect more, share real experiences, and put more of myself into everything I write.
Kudos to everyone who inspired me. Without seeing your work, Iโd probably still be dragging this out for another 10 years.
Thanks to my friends for pretending ๐ not to believe Iโd ever finish, and to my wife for believing.