Exploring the benefits of using a plain text system for productivity to combat system complexity and maintenance.

In an era where digital dependence is commonplace, I moved towards personal tech independence in 2023. This blog post details my transition away from mainstream tech giants and towards more secure, private, and autonomous alternatives. Breaking Free from the Norm In 2023, I finally broke free from the likes of Google, Facebook, and other tech giants—a commitment I’d long made to myself but never fulfilled. Like many of you, Google and Facebook had been my internet cornerstones for years, offering convenience, cost-effectiveness, and entertainment.

In his excellent book, The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt details a metaphor for the relationship between our conscious and unconscious minds: the elephant and the rider. The rider thinks he controls the towering beast because it generally follows his commands, slowly lumbering from side to side at the pull of the reins. Little does the rider know, the elephant could throw the rider to his death or great injury at any moment.

Tucker Carlson Tonight was the most popular primetime news show in the US from April 2020 until the shows sudden cancelation on April 24, 2023. Carlson was suddenly fired due in large part to text messages that were likely to come out if the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit were to go to trial, causing the Fox board to pay nearly $800M to settle the case. They were leaked anyway.

John Wick 4 is bigger, better, badder than any other fighting-focused action movie, ever. It improves on the earlier installments with its creativity, scale, and precision. Of course, I am only talking about the fighting. The plot was relatively weak, as it was in the others, but man was the fighting good. The people who said it was too long were wrong. In John Wick 4, nearly every character, no matter how insignificant, wears a bullet-proof suit.

I have made a career out of WordPress. I am personally responsible for the security, stability, and updates of 500+ active WordPress installations (not including the few multi-sites.) Collectively, they receive hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per day. I have grown to love WordPress over the years, wholeheartedly recommending it to friends, family, and clients for all sorts of use-cases, and I don’t regret it. WordPress is the closest thing we have to an open website Swiss army knife.