The Manifesto
Work in progress
This plain white blog might not be much. And that is very intentional. I've created too many flashing landing pages with tons of animations and all of that shit in the past. A lot of portfolios follow a futuristic, or Apple-like, style. This one is purposefully simple. Easy on the eyes. Easy to navigate. Hopefully, with not too much clutter.
Content
I strive to create human-first content. Written by a human, for a human. Nowadays, SEO/xEO algorithms do not really care who wrote content, whether it be an LLM or a real person. But readers care. When I'm reading an article I can smell AI from the very intro. That gives me a signal to not read it or take it as seriously.
Clients care, too. Some AI-generated content goes fine, but brand image can be hurt by overdoing it. Real thoughts, ideas and concept explanations are best conveyed by a human.
Long-termness
Whatever I do I try to plan it to be sustainable long term. No quick money either. When I started technical writing, LLMs didn't exist in a way they do now. A long-term plan still revolves about a human-first approach. In content. In metrics. In distribution. Ranking up high in a ChatGPT search is good, but the searchee is still a human, and they might actually read the underlying source.
My modus operandi is inherently simple:
To produce superb, well-researched technical content.
That content must be simple to understand, technical enough for geeks, clean, and where applicable, interactive.
Keeping things lean
"You can do big things with small teams, but it’s hard to do small things with big teams. And small is often plenty. That’s the power of small — you do what needs to be done rather than overdoing it." - 37signals
I like keeping things lean and purposeful. When collaboratoring with others, I prefer a smaller, cherry-picked circle of writers and editors. I've seen agencies employ 200+ collaborators at a time. If you are not an enterprise, there is no way you are getting the best output from them.
My business principle revolves around this too. No unnecessary legal structures as well. As of now, I'm a sole proprietor, which is one of the easiest legal entities for doing business here. Albeit, it has its limits, and I'm planning on opening a limited company alongside, but keeping it lean, too.
A sole proprietor in my country with less than ~$58k in yearly revenue pays only 2% in tax on income. Over that limit, the tax is 10% on profit and the sole proprietor is enrolled in VAT. A limited company has also 10% tax on profit, and no VAT obligations under ~$58k.
Communication
Since 2022/23, I have been social media free. I have reinstantiated my LinkedIn a few times to communicate with leads, email does the job just as good. And without sending an ID to Microsoft just to use an account.
I prefer email-only communication where possible. Currently, Slack is also a place of communication, but primarily async. Async is the way.
Meetings are a last resort. I cannot fathom how much I hate meetings in general, let alone the unnecessary ones. Email me, or ping on Slack if really need, and let's avoid meetings if possible. Much of the focus for the whole day gets lost even by one meeting. I'd rather ride my bike than sit on a meeting. That ride will give me more focus as well.