A Lesson in Technology Minimalism

Keeping it Simple

In my many years in Information Technology, I have always liked and tried to follow the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid has been a hallmark in how I approached technical solutions for multiple Fortune 500 companies. I found that the simplest ways to approach a problem were easier to build and had lower support and maintenance problems. One could call it Technology Minimalism. In a way, I have always been a minimalist, I guess. Who knew?

When I set out to launch my YouTube Channel and this Website, I wanted to avoid a lot of complexity. The journey of creating this site was more complex than I had wanted. I had opted to use WordPress and wanted to avoid writing custom code. Given the popularity of WordPress and the ton of plugins out there, it seemed like a great fit.

In order to achieve the desired appearance, functionality, and speed of my website while also ensuring the utmost privacy for my readers, I had to use a variety of different plugins. Unfortunately, this caused the costs of building, deploying, and running the site to exceed my initial budget. However, I was finally able to launch the site in its current form in September. Although I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how it was put together and had plans to add more features, it was live and operational.

Post Launch Blues

Since its launch, I have had many problems, from conflicts between my hosting and caching providers to plugins that randomly break things. It’s become much more of a burden and headache than I wanted. I wanted to keep things simple and easy to manage, and that’s not the current state.

I finally had my fill over the weekend when only of my plugins had a “minor” bug fix released that completely screwed up my site. After a long troubleshooting session, I had to punt the issue and forcibly revert the plugin to an older version to get the site back to working order. Something had to change.

Looking at the current state of things and keeping with the KISS principle, I reevaluated my situation. I could continue down this route, trying to maintain what I have or take a different approach.

Technology decision-makers often fall prey to the “sunk-cost fallacy,” which means they continue to invest more money and time into a solution that is not working, simply because they have already invested a lot of resources into it. However, I do not believe in being constrained by this concept. Therefore, I have decided to take a different approach.

After running this site for a handful of months, I have a better sense of what I need. While WordPress powers many websites out there and is a powerful tool, it’s also adding far too much complexity for what I need.

The Next Chapter

As I looked for alternatives, I came across HUGO — a static website building tool built on the GO language. After much research and soul-searching, I have decided that’s the direction I want to take.

This approach has many advantages; it will simplify my workflow once it’s in place and lower my costs, as I won’t need a WordPress hosting provider or all the plugins.

The only downside to my new plan is that it will require some development work on my part. This is optional as there are many themes and tools out there for HUGO, but in keeping things more straightforward in the long term and getting the exact functionality and look I want, doing some custom development will be needed.

Consequently, updates on this site will be few and far between until the new HUGO-based one is ready to launch. I had also planned on taking it easy over the holidays. So please don’t take the lack of updates here for a while as a sign it has gone dark. A new and improved version of this site is on the way.

First up will be my “Link-In-Bio” site, as that site is much simpler and will be easier to replace. Then, this site. I plan to write up my experience building the new versions of these sites, so be on the lookout for that when I re-launch this site. Until they are ready, the existing sites will continue to function.

Minimalism and simplicity have a role to play in all aspects of our lives, including the websites we maintain. I hope my readers have a great holiday season, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon.