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Admitting Mistakes

Something I know to be true about myself now more than ever is a desire to keep things simple. This includes a number of (if not all) areas of my life but includes my approach to technology, relationships, and money.

The convergence of factors that led to The Pivot were within this realm and all logical.

  • Technology: “I want to move away from Dropbox to simplify where my documents live.”
  • Relationships: “I want to go where others seem to be, namely GitHub Pages.”
  • Money: “I want to save a few bucks since I don’t need all the features of my current platform.”

However, the factors as a whole missed a few niceties that were not logical. In other words, I missed the trees for the forest. The details of the way I ran the blog equated to a simplicity that when moved to a more complex platform, got in the way of creation. I spent time getting the space to look the way I wanted or, better put, the same and there was exhilaration in the ramp up as there often is, but once the dust settled, was I better for it?

A few things stuck out:

  • Technology: “GitHub keeps throwing generic build errors when nothing looks wrong and there’s no direct support when I need it nor logs for me to visit to check.”
  • Relationships: “Nash is still on Blot, so my interactions with him will necessitate being familiar with two platforms.”
  • Money: “The peace of mind and simplicity of the UI was worth a few dollars.”

So I reached out to the Blot developer and had a conversation; I admitted my mistakes and sought grace for a return to simplicity and in the process decided it was time for change. If The Other Pivot is to be believed, I’m writing with more frequency and more focus.

In addition to the above, I have rethought everything about the site. Since I am physically incapable of taking things lightly, I rebuilt it from the ground up with simplicity in mind. Again, the three aforementioned focuses to explain:

  • Technology: This site is running on very little in terms of structure with minimal extras and a focus on simple navigation and layout. I intend to add more to the homepage to feature some things, but those will be seen through a more minimalistic lens.
  • Relationships: I am back to sending the Blot developer bug reports frequently since beta testing is a true passion of mine and has been for some time. I have already updated Nash's site with a few things I have learned in rebuilding my own. I made a new online friend with the publishing of Minimalist Guilt.
  • Money: I am happy to support an independent developer on an independent platform. You can, too!

I made a mistake in moving away from Blot in the first place, whether the initial reasoning was logical or not; making and admitting mistakes is a good lesson to revisit periodically anyway.