My approach to running a link blog

I can't express how fulfilling it is to look back at years of archives on fabisevi.ch and build.ms, and seeing how my ideas have evolved over time. I believe everyone has something worth sharing, so wouldn't it be amazing if we made 2025 the year of blogging?

Instead of spending so much time and energy posting fleeting thoughts on apps like X or Threads, consider writing about your thoughts, feelings, or ideas on a blog. Few bloggers are more prolific than Simon Willison, who has been writing for over 20 years. That's why I would pay attention when he shares his strategy for writing consistently in — of course — a blog post.

I started running a basic link blog on this domain back in November 2003—publishing links (which I called “blogmarks”) with a title, URL, short snippet of commentary and a “via” link where appropriate.  

I’m going to describe the informal set of guidelines I’ve set myself for how I link blog, in the hope that it might encourage other people to give this a try themselves.

On Bill Watterson’s Refusal To License Calvin and Hobbes

Long before the term "creator economy" was coined, a creative individual who transitioned from pursuing their art out of passion to doing it for money would often be labeled a sellout. Bill Watterson exemplified true creativity and declined the substantial wealth that could have come from commercializing his work, choosing instead to prioritize the depth of his comic strip. Because of this decision, Bill is remembered as a person of integrity, and his comics are held in even higher esteem — a valuable reminder for all of us.

Watterson famously refused to license his creation to anyone for any reason other than publishing. No movies, no cartoons (although he almost relented when approached by Pixar), no toys, no hats or t-shirts. Nothing. When asked in an interview why licensing his characters was out of the question, Watterson said:

Licensing is inconsistent with what I’m trying to do with Calvin and Hobbes… it isn’t a gag strip… The humor is situational, and often episodic. It relies on conversation, and the development of personalities and relationships… To explore character, you need lots of time and space. Note pads and coffee mugs just aren’t appropriate vehicles for what I’m trying to do here. I’m not interested in removing all the subtlety from my work to condense it for a product… I have no aversion to obscene wealth, but that’s not my motivation either. I think to license Calvin and Hobbes would ruin the most precious qualities of my strip and, once that happens, you can’t buy those qualities back.

100 things you can do on your personal website

I loved this blog post because it's brimming with creative little ideas, featuring dozens of concepts I never would have considered. Some require a bit of programming, while others are as simple as writing a list of words you've learned recently or sharing a recipe you made.

One of my favourite things to do in my free time is to tinker with this website. Indeed, this website is the culmination of years of tinkering. I have added features like coffee shop maps that I can share with friends, a way for me to share my bio in two languages, a sitemap.xml file to help search engines find pages on my website, and more.

Below, I list many things you can do on your personal website. This post is not meant to be a checklist so much as a source for inspiration. Perhaps one of the ideas below will take you down a delightful rabbit hole that leads you to new learnings. Perhaps an idea will bring you joy. Perhaps some ideas aren’t right for your site, but that still get you thinking.