In a discussion with a friend, I mentioned how easy it is to overengineer solutions to problems. This weekend, I have been evaluating what it is that I want to do with my personal website. What matters most to me? In asking this question, I realize that I have been guilty of overengineering solutions to problems that may not actually be problems with which I should be concerned.
My first attempt at writing an analytics bash script got me excited about bash scripting. My first script displayed the total number of page views my blog receives and the total number of people who have viewed my feed. The program was limited to reading logs for the last two days.
I just read a delightful blog post called "An app can be a home-cooked meal". The author of the post, Robin, shares his story of making a personal messaging app just for him and his close family. The messaging app doesn't aim to do much other than let them communicate in a way they feel is natural. There are no ads, forced updates, or anything of that nature to worry about. Because Robin made the app himself, he chooses its direction.
I was just reading a post by Rach Smith on "hedonic adaptation" with GitHub Copilot and a few other developer tools. In the post, Rach makes a thought-provoking statement with regard to improvements in developer experience over the last few years: