It really is the year of the website

29 January 2026

I keep talking about it so I’m finally doing it. You might be looking at my website right now, thinking “this looks a bit basic m8″ and you’d be right. It’s because I’m building this website in iterations. The version you see now is the “wireframe” shell version and there’s lots more versions to come.

Today, I’ve published the first post of a series on Piccalilli where I redesign and re-build this thing in the open. The hope is that it inspires you to build and maintain your own corner of the internet.

I’ve also been (borderline desperately) trying to think of something to write about in 2026. Doing more practical, building stuff is the direction I’ve landed on. It links back to what I was talking about in my end of year wrap up, in the Be human and improve your own skills section:

There’s been a bit of a culture of “I don’t need to bother doing that because of AI” and let me tell you — from someone who has been doing this stuff for nearly 20 years — that is a dangerous position to put yourself in. No single technology has surpassed the need for personal development and genuine human intelligence.

You should always be getting incrementally better at what you do. Now, what I am not saying is that you should be doing work work out of hours. You are not paid enough and frankly, the industry does not value you enough. Value yourself by investing your time in skills that make you happy and fulfilled.

In that section, I also say “make yourself, and maintain a personal website”. I’ve had a website for a long time, but I couldn’t really maintain it anymore because frankly, I build it with my elbows. The previous iteration served me well, sure, but I want something to learn the new stuff with, to enjoy working on and to embrace the art.

Me writing about that as I go is just the cherry on the top. I hope you’ll follow along as I do that! You can read the first post in the series here.