Why I Let Go of My Portfolio Site

For a long time, I maintained a personal website that served as a portfolio and resume. It was a simple HTML and CSS site I built my freshman year of college—no frameworks, no backend, just static files. The content was straightforward: my work experience, a list of skills, and a handful of side projects I had worked on at the time. It lived on paid web hosting that, despite how minimal the site was, cost more than it probably should have.

The site technically did what it was meant to do, but I rarely interacted with it outside of specific moments when I needed it.

The Problem

In practice, I only touched the site when applying for jobs. I would update a title, adjust a description, maybe replace a side project that no longer felt representative, and then leave it alone again. Most of the time it sat unchanged.

That meant it was almost always out of date. The resume section lagged behind reality, and the side projects reflected snapshots of interest that had long since passed. Updating anything required editing files, redeploying, and doing just enough manual work that it felt annoying rather than productive. None of this was difficult, but it was enough friction that I avoided doing it unless I had a specific reason.

I also found myself paying a yearly hosting bill for a site I barely touched, which stopped making sense.

What I Actually Needed

I wanted a site I would actually use. Not something I updated once every few years, but something I could come back to regularly.

More specifically, I wanted a place to write. A place to capture what I was learning, what I was building, and what I was running into along the way. I wanted to be able to write things down while they were still fresh, and come back to them later as a reference. Sharing that writing was a bonus, but the primary value was having a record I could reuse and build on over time.

I also wanted a simpler workflow—less maintenance, fewer reasons to put off updating the site, and lower costs.

Why a Blog Format

A blog format fits that usage pattern naturally. It's designed for writing and publishing without turning every change into a small web project. It allows rough notes and more structured posts to exist in the same place. It lowers the effort required to add new content. Instead of trying to keep a single static page up to date, I can write continuously and let the site grow over time. That aligns much better with how I actually work and learn.

Why Ghost

Ghost checked the boxes that mattered. It was fast to get running and required very little setup once installed. The writing experience is clean and focused. The themes are simple and readable without much customization. Most importantly, it gets out of the way.

From an engineering perspective, it was also a pragmatic decision. I did not want to spend weeks building something custom. I did not want to maintain a complex stack. I wanted something stable, low effort, and good enough that I could focus on writing instead of infrastructure. Ghost fit that tradeoff well.

What This Site Is Now

This site is not meant to replace a resume, and it is not trying to optimize for reach or visibility. It is simply a place to write things down as I learn and work through problems. Compared to a portfolio that only changed when I was job hunting, this feels more honest and more sustainable.

If it helps me think more clearly, track what I am learning, and share something useful along the way, then it is doing exactly what I want it to do.