Building a personal website. First Dev Log.

Building a Personal Website

I've been wanting to have a personal website for a couple years now. I made one in Google Sites during high school but I never updated it. 😅

Later on, I experimented with different ways to build a website but none of them gave me the complete customization I wanted. There was always a something missing...

So, I just built my own using Next.js. I'm glad I did because I learned a lot during the process, even if it took longer than using a simple no-code platform.

Future Website Updates

The whole point of a personal website is that it reflects who you are.

Since I'm always changing, the site needs to evolve with me.

• Skills: As I unlock new abilities, I'll update the Skill Tree.
• Projects: Every new build goes into the Project Grid.
• Lore: If my career or status changes, the "Character Lore" gets patched.
• Writing: I'll be adding dev logs and essays consistently.

Luckily, changing the website is actually not too hard. I'd say the most annoying part is optimizing the images; everything else like adding a new project, adding a new skill, adding a project, or even creating a blog post is all pretty straightforward.

My Story So Far...

Anyway here's a quick recap of my story so far:

In high school, I mainly developed video games and it was lots of fun! I made a few games and documented the process on my game dev channel.

It was an amazing learning experience, I learned so much about coding, video editing, 3D modeling, image editing, Unity, etc.

But after two years, I realized that creating video games didn’t have the positive impact that I wanted on the world. I remember watching my little brother play Fortnite for hours without moving, and I just knew something was wrong... The worst part is I saw my younger self in him.

So that’s why I got into robotics!

I’m not really sure why I was drawn to it, but I joined the Vanier Robotics Team, worked hard, and eventually felt competent. However, as much as I love engineering, I realized I needed to figure out the "money" game pretty fast (because I’m broke 😭).

Since I was already building custom automations for myself, I decided to do so commercially for other businesses. That’s how Silent Stacks was born. I helped B2B tech companies by developing custom AI automations and workflows.

I did this for a while, but I had a hard time getting new customers. However, the customers I worked with were always very nice and often came back asking for more automations or products.

I learned a lot about n8n, sales, business management, etc.

Current Goals

I've thought a lot about what I wanted to do with my life and I'm very aware of my own mortality. It's something I think about a little too much maybe. 😅 But that urgency drives me.

There are currently 3 main "big" quests I am pursuing:

1. Upgrade My Character
2. Create Value for Others
3. Live cool experiences

First, I need to relentlessly upgrade my character as fast as possible. This means:

• Building up my mind (Courage, Focus, Discipline, Bias to Action)
• Building an optimal body
• Developing as many skills as possible
• Accumulating resources (wealth/influence) to make big moves

By leveling up, I'll have more control over my life (agency). This ties in perfectly to #2: Creating Value.

If I don't upgrade myself, it's difficult to have a meaningful positive impact on others.

Finally, I want to live a life worth documenting. If I became the ultimate version of myself but never lived awesome experiences, I would have failed. I want to explore the world, try new things, and spend time with the people who matter.

If every decision, habit, and action in my life gets me closer to #1, #2, or #3, then I think I can say I lived a "good" life (hopefully with no regrets).

So... What's Next?

Ok cool, but what's the next step? The next step is boosting my skills.

I'd like to create value for others by developing innovative technologies (related to robotics, AI, or energy). I especially like robotics at the moment, yet I'm not very skilled in that domain. I need to level up my robotics skills as fast as possible and build my crew of smart ambitious people.

To increase my skills there are a few things I could do like:

• I could get a job in a high growth tech company.
• I should also build many personal projects to develop my skills even further

Eventually, I'll find a particular problem that energizes me and I'll go all-in. But at the moment, my skills are so low that I can barely see opportunity at all.

As I acquire more skills, the fog will lift and I'll be able to see the landscape for what it is.

If I fail my first startup, I'll simply try again and again and again. I can try as many times as I need until I die. I will never give up.

I'm documenting the journey because I always wish the "greats" had documented their early days. I'll share my thoughts in these blog posts and on social media.

I also started a podcast where I share what's going on. I even bought a new mic so the audio doesn't suck. Here it is:

I will succeed. I don't care if it's hard.

The hard things are the only ones worth doing.