2026-03-21 21:25:00
Following the 7-step approach and the 1-step approach, and also channelling the spirit of the longstanding tradition of learning how to draw owls on the internet:
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2026-03-20 20:00:00
This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Melanie Richards, whose blog can be found at melanie-richards.com/blog.
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I’m a Group Product Manager co-leading the core product at Webflow, i.e. helping teams visually design and build websites. My personal mission is to empower people to make inspiring, impactful, and inclusive things on the web. That’s been the through line of my career so far: I started out as a designer at a full-service agency called Fuzzco, moved to the web platform at Microsoft Edge, continued building for developers at Netlify, and am now aiming to make web creation even more democratic with the Webflow platform.
I transitioned from design to product management while at Microsoft Edge. I wanted to take part in steering the future of the web platform, instead of remaining downstream of those decisions. I feel so lucky to have worked on new features in HTML, ARIA, CSS, and JavaScript with other PMs and developers in the W3C and WHATWG.
I’m a builder at heart, so I love to work on webby side projects as well as a whole bevy of analog hobbies: knitting, sewing, weaving, sketchbooking, and journaling.
I have a couple primary blogs right now:
From 2013–2016 I also had a blog and directory called Badass Lady Creatives (wish I had spent more than five minutes on the name, haha). This featured women who were doing cool things in various “creative” industries. At the time it seemed like every panel, conference lineup, and group project featured all or mostly dudes. The blog was a way to push back on that a little bit and highlight people who were potentially overlooked. Since then gender representation (for one) seems to have gotten a bit better in these industries. But the work and joy of celebrating diverse, inspiring talent is never done!
Big “yeet to production” vibes for me! I use Obsidian to scribble down my thoughts and write an initial draft. Obsidian creates Markdown files, so I copy and paste those into Visual Studio Code (my code editor), add some images and make some tweaks, and then push to production. I really try not to overthink it too much. However, I will admit that I have a tons of drafts in Obsidian that never see the light of day. It can be cathartic enough just to scribble it down, even if I never publish the thought.
For my Learning Log posts, I use a Readwise => Obsidian workflow I describe in this blog post. Reader by Readwise is the app where I store and read all my RSS feeds and newsletter forwards.
“Parallel play” is the biggest, most joyful boon to my creativity. I love to be in the company of others as we independently work on our own projects side by side.
There’s a delicate balance when it comes to working on creative projects socially. For example, my mom, my aunt, and I often have Sew Day over FaceTime on Sundays. Everyone’s pretty committed to what they’re working on, so it’s easy to sew and talk and sing (badly 😂) at the same time. I also used to go to a local craft night that very sadly disbanded when the host shop changed hands.
For writing or coding, that takes a bit more mental focus for me. I started a Discord server with a few friends, which is dedicated to working on blog posts and side projects. We meet up once a month to talk about our projects (and shoot the breeze, usually about web accessibility and/or the goodness of dogs). Then we all log off the voice channel to go do the thing!
Both of these blogs use Eleventy and plain ol’ Markdown, and are hosted on Netlify. Some of my other side projects use a content management system (CMS) like Webflow’s CMS, or Contentful + Eleventy. Again, Webflow is my current employer.
I use a Netlify form for comments on my “Making” blog, and Webmentions for my main blog. I will probably pull out Webmentions from that code base: conceptually they’ve never really “landed” for me, and it would be nice to delete a ton of code.
I generally like my setup, though sometimes I think about migrating my “Making” blog onto a CMS. As far as CMSes go, I quite like Webflow’s: it’s straightforward and has that Goldilocks level of functionality for me. Some other CMSes I’ve tried have felt bloated yet seemed to miss obvious functionality out of the box.
I have a Bookshop.org affiliate link and it took me several years to meet the $20 minimum payout so…yeah I’ve never truly monetized my blogging! I find there’s freedom in giving away your thoughts for free.
As far as costs go, I have pretty low overhead: just paying for the domain name.
I’m fine with other folks monetizing personal blogs, though of course there’s a classy and not-classy way to do so. If monetizing is what keeps bloggers’ work on the open web, on sites they own and control, I prefer that over monetizing through walled gardens. Related: Substack makes it easy to monetize but there are some very compelling reasons to consider alternatives.
This is highly topical: I’m currently scheming about a directory site listing “maker” blogs! So many communities in the visual arts and crafts are stuck on social media platforms they don’t even enjoy, beholden to the whims of an algorithm. I’d like to connect makers in a more organic way. If you’re a crafter who would like to be part of this, feel free to fill out this Google form!
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2026-03-19 22:40:00
We’re all familiar with social media: the Facebooks, the Twitters, the TikToks of this silly digital world. They have invaded our lives and taken over our time and attention. We have spent the past decade posting, snapping, tweeting, reeling (?), tiktoking (??). We fall asleep youtubing, only to wake up with our “for you” page completely fucked up because the algorithm lives a life of its own and has decided to profile us as someone who loves sheep herding and carpet cleaning (and, you know, maybe it's right).
But imagine for a second if someone managed to reinvent social media. Imagine if there was a new product out there on the internet. A product so revolutionary, so original, so refreshingly different, that it will completely transform the way you feel and interact with other people online.
Can you feel the excitement building? Well, I’m sorry—not sorry—to disappoint you because that product is not here. What is here, though (blame Kevin), is a silly little experiment: the Dealgorithm IRC server. I was thinking about setting an IRC server up just for fun, and he took the idea, ran with it, and the server is now live.
Now, contrary to the fools at Digg, I know how the web works, and there’s no chance in hell I’d let this server open to the internet, so that every weirdo out there could join. Which is why, if you’re interested in joining, you need to apply by filling out this form. I’m not going to request a copy of your ID…for now.
The server is currently set up to retain up to 2000 messages per channel for up to 48 hours. We might play with these settings, but I don’t want this to be a place for content to stick around. The idea is to have a space where a bunch of people can hang out in a very casual way and talk about anything they find interesting.
We may or may not permanently ban you if you profess your love for AI. You’ve been warned.
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2026-03-18 16:10:00
In my “closing thoughts” post about the phone usage experiment, I mentioned I had deeper thoughts I wanted to share. Here I am, sharing those thoughts. I ran various month-long life experiments over the years, many of which I chronicled here on this blog. For that reason, the outcome of this recent phone experiment wasn’t a surprise: if I make the conscious decision to pay attention to some specific aspect of my life, there’s a high likelihood I’ll manage to enact significant changes in that specific area. Or so I thought.
You see, I am a flawed human being, like many—most?—of the people out there. If I were in therapy, there would be a plethora of issues I’d be discussing with my therapist, but in therapy I am not, and so I thought it would be fun—for me at least, not sure about you—to tackle one of them here, since it’s strictly related to this recent phone experiment.
«Wait a second, if that’s the case, then why aren’t you in therapy, Manu?» Good question, I’m glad you asked. There are two main reasons. The first, and less important reason, is that I am a stubborn motherfucker, and the idea of asking someone else to help me fix my inner issues is something that doesn’t sit right with me. The second, and more important reason, is that I have a fundamental distrust of psychologists. Not in psychology as a field, I have no issues with that. I even considered going into psychology back when I was about to finish high school and was thinking about possible career paths. I also read plenty of psychology books, and the book that had more impact on me growing up was a psychology book written by a psychologist.
The issue I have with psychologists is that all the ones I had the pleasure to meet in person were deeply flawed and fucked up individuals, and that left an impression on me. Now I carry this fundamental (and partly irrational) distrust in them, which is a bit problematic since it’s hard to go to therapy when you don’t trust the person on the other side. Maybe this will change at some point in the future, who knows. I'm open to that possibility.
Anyway, to get back on track, the issue I wanted to discuss is related to disappointment. Specifically, my issue with the concept of disappointing others. This is something I had to deal with since I was a kid, and I’m not sure why that is. I don’t know if it was triggered by something specific that happened or if it’s just part of my character, but disappointing others and especially the thought of seeing them disappointed because of something I did or didn’t do, is something I have always struggled with. To this day, I still do.
The reason why I think this is all related to my weird life experiments is that those experiments usually follow a pattern: I experiment with something, I blog about it, I get to enjoy the benefits of some positive change, the experiment ends, I stop blogging about it, and slowly but surely the old habits manage to creep back in. It happens every time, like clockwork. But this time around, I realised that the reason why it happens is that I, fundamentally, do not give much of a fuck about myself. That itself is a topic for another time, but in the context of this discussion, the thing that matters is that as long as I’m blogging and I’m sharing my experience, the irrational pressure of disappointing someone keeps me on track. At a rational level, I know that no one gives a fuck if I fail at these silly experiments, and yet, for some reason, that extra pressure is what keeps me in check.
Now, is this a healthy way to exist in this world? Probably not. Do I care? Definitely not. But, having realised this, I’m now wondering how I can exploit this to my advantage. Because there are things I’d love to change in my life, and I’m starting to think leveraging the disappointment-lever to my advantage could be the way to go.
My phone usage, for example, is still under control, and that’s because I know I’m gonna keep sharing those numbers. Not weekly, because that’s boring, but probably every couple of months. And this fact alone, the decision of doing this, is apparently enough to keep my brain on track.
Brains are weird, what can I say? I’m still figuring out which changes I want to put in place in my life. The tricky part is that they need to be trackable and shareable somehow; otherwise, this will not work, but I’m sure I’ll manage to come up with a solution.
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2026-03-13 20:00:00
This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Patrick Rhone, whose blog can be found at patrickrhone.net.
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My name is Patrick Rhone. When I'm not trying to be the best husband and father I can be, I'm mostly known as a writer, blogger, technology consultant, speaker, mental health advocate, and general c-list internet personality.
I also restore old houses as a professional hobby. I do volunteer circus rigging at a performing youth circus school as a less professional one.
The very first post on my blog, Rhoneisms, is dated November 7th, 2003. Of course, I had been blogging before that, and there used to be posts dated slightly earlier. But, my blog actually began as an internally hosted one at the college I used to work for and I lost those earlier posts when I moved to a different platform and brought it public… Gosh, that seems like it was just yesterday. Not 22 years ago. Such is life.
My main blog has had many different points of focus over the years. From geeky, mainly Apple, tech stuff to GTD-driven personal productivity stuff, to practical/actionable life advice stuff, to the anything I'm interested in sort of thing it is now. And, that’s exactly what a blog should be — a reflection of one's interest and attention over time. A reflection of who one is right now and where they've been. Blogs are living things that should grow at the same rate we do.
I say "main" blog above because I do have a couple of other topic specific blogs (one for my home restoration work and The Cramped which is not often updated these days).
I really just post anything I feel like. Links to things I find interesting. Essays of things that take me a bit longer to express. Short thought's I'm having. All sorts of things.
I’m 58 years old. The internet was not even anything regular people could use until I was in my early 20s. My first "online" writing was things I posted to dial up BBS systems/communities. In the old days of the internet, it was common to have a blog just links or thoughts much like mine is today. There was no such thing as content management systems (like Moveable Type or WordPress) or services. No such thing as blogging software. Things were hand coded HTML. There were no “rules” about what a post had to look like or be.
Here’s Kottke.org from 2001. No titles. No format. Just some thoughts and a bunch of links for the day. This is the feel I’m trying to recapture.
I generally do not have a specific creative environment. I believe the best inspiration can strike anywhere at anytime for the type of blogging I'm doing.
That said, for my longer form essays, in general my process is that I think about something for a very long time and then suddenly, out of nowhere at often at the most inconvenient time, what I call "writing brain" kicks in and I must find something — anything — to get it written down ASAP. It appears fully formed when that happens. So, no drafts.
My blog and domain registration is through Dreamhost who I've used for too long to remember (2012 maybe). It runs on WordPress. If I'm on iOS I use Drafts to post to it. On my Mac, I use MarsEdit. I very rarely use the Wordpress web interface for posting. Only if I need to jump in and edit the HTML of something complicated to format otherwise.
Nope. I'm very happy with where it is now and how it exists. Like I said, a blog should grow and change at the same rate I do so, who knows, that could change tomorrow and when/if it does, I'll change it accordingly.
Back of the napkin calculation: My general unlimited hosting for all my domains (I have a lot), sites, etc. is $39.95 a month. It would be too difficult to break down how much it is just to host the one blog out of that.
It doesn't generate any direct revenue really and I don't do it for that reason. I suppose people who enjoy my work will buy one of my books or something but it is not for this that I do it.
I blog because it is the best way for me to catalog my interests and thinking over time.
If others want to monetize their work that's their choice and I have no real opinion on it. There are a few bloggers that I support with my dollars in different ways and I'm happy to do so.
I remain a fan of Nicholas Bate who currently blogs at Hunter Gatherer 21C. In general, I enjoy his thoughts and insights. I also like his style of blogging. In many ways similar to mine (and I'd be remiss if I did not admit that mine is somewhat inspired by his). I'd recommend him for sure.
But, there are too many people I absolutely adore and admire to list here. Some of which have already appeared in this series. Annie Muller, Rebecca Toh, Kurt Harden, my friend Jamie Thingelstad. Obviously also internet famous ones like Jason Kottke and John Gruber.
The wonderful thing about the internet and the resurgence of blogging is that there is an endless amount of great blogs and bloggers out there. There is something and someone for everyone. Google your interests and find your people.
Well, I'm writing this in the middle of a tumultuous time not just in my country but in my city and local community. It is the end of January in Minneapolis/Saint Paul and anyone reading this - even long after - need only google to know what is happening here. And, I can tell you anything you do see or read or hear about it is but one of hundreds or thousands of stories. In other words, my mind is a bit pre-occupied right now.
But what I do want people to know about that is that despite everything our own federal government is doing to our state, it is only making our local communes stronger. We are deepening our ties with our neighbors, developing mutual aid networks to ensure care for the most vulnerable, and building peaceful resistance rapid response groups on a hyper local level.
So this is what I want people to know: The worst of them is bringing out the best of us. The worst in them is bringing out the best in us.
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2026-03-12 16:55:00
It’s fine. Many people do it, and you decided to do the same. That’s ok. But don’t attempt to use some wishy-washy argument to justify your actions. You either believe in something and you’re willing to power through, or you don’t, and you do what everybody else is doing. It’s fine to pick option B, but at least have the courage to admit it and don't use some bullshit argument to justify your actions.
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