I’ve been using jekyll to publish this site sporadically for years. I have in the last year or two gotten a new computer set up with a publishing workflow that’s typical of sites on this platform: a local install of jekyll to build the site with a local copy of the markdown and associated files to generate the html, stored in a git repository. I’ve gotten comfortable with the 3 or 4 git commands I need to know to change branches, add files and push changes to my server and see them get published.
Ultimately what we need is for the tools to get out of our way, for those tools to conceal or only gradually expose complexity. A tool is for accomplishing a task, like cutting wood or hammering a nail. If the handle of the saw or hammer is difficult or complicated to hold, it effectively gets in the way of allowing the user to preform the task they are attempting to accomplish. If I want to build a bookcase (publish a webpage) then if the handle of my saw requires too many unfamiliar things of me (use of git) then I allow the process of getting a grip on the saw to stop me from building the bookcase. I let the little roadblock stop me from doing the fulfilling thing and I’m stuck shuffling deck chairs.
It’s telling that the above two paragraphs were ones I started drafting in a different file here in April of this year, but I’m only just getting around to writing a couple more sentences and decide what to do with this bit of text instead of letting it languish in the drafts folder for the site.
I’ve gotten the tools down, I’ve got a good handle on them and now I need to get out of my own way and find my way to do the writing I want to be doing, little bits of work and thinking out loud that are short and rewarding and build, eventually perhaps, into some larger cumulative project.