I have changed my mind. At least for now.
I am used to signing up for all kinds of services. My mantra has been to use what others have created. As a student I had plenty of time to fiddle with things, but as time became a scarcer resource I entered the I-just-want-it-to-work camp. I still like fiddling, but not with things that have to be maintained over time.
This mindset is slowly shifting with the introduction of AI. I realized that I am using several services, most of them free, by pimping my data. The articles I write, the videos I’m in, the podcast I participate in and more. I have gladly given this data away to American tech companies in exchange for convenience. But as the cost of software is rapidly decreasing, I am changing my mind. Or at least will experiment with it.
So I have created my own website. 👉www.wolman.se👈, and if you are reading this, you should already be on it. I have used Claude code (I know, another big American tech company 🙄) to create a place where I can gather my writing, my speaking engagements and the podcasts I participate in.
It is not a statement, but rather an experiment. Can I own my data, and share it in the shape and form I want? How will it change the experience for readers and for myself?
Technology
For the 🤓. I am using hugo to turn Markdown into website posts. Claude created a simple custom theme for me. I am using umami to self host tracking of the website (did you notice, no cookies). The whole thing runs on cheap Hetzner infrastructure.
I’m curious to see where this experiment takes me. I will keep sharing new posts on LinkedIn as the moat of having users is not something I am willing to cross.