The Software Scrutiny Journal

This website is far from DRY principles. It is not optimized and does not scale. I do not use any markdown generators, layout templates, or bundled CSS frameworks. You may ask “Why Jake? Why would you do such a thing?”

I view my website as a continual action-reaction experience. One day I felt like creating a landing page for myself. It contained my name, email, and a little about me. In fact, it was more of a $10/yr splurge than anything. Fast forward two years, I felt the need to share my fierce passion for text files. Did I want to rewrite the website with something fancier like Jekyll? No, I only wanted to write a post and get it on the web. So that’s what I did – I created a new html file, and I linked it from the homepage. Easy peasy.

When I write a couple more posts, I will still probably not use a blog generator. Why bother? I get from point A to point B in roughly the same amount of time.

I don’t want to make the case that it is never okay to optimize. Of course at some point it makes sense to refine.

In industry, people often over-optimize their business before they even have customers. This is a misuse of time, money, and opportunity. What are they honestly expecting to happen here? Just like how I am slowly shaping my website into something, you can do the same for your business! Wear all of the hats, do things that are not the most efficient, and do whatever you can to make the business work. Discovering efficiency is wiser than speculating optimizations.

Defering optimization is not the same as being sloppy. Take pride in your work, and do the best you can. Automation becomes easier as you gain more knowledge in the market. Be patient. Slow and steady wins the race!