This website is intentionally minimal.

I will include some images from time to time to break up the text and add value but that’s it. The world wide web is intent on shouting and screaming in your face, fighting for your attention in order to manipulate you in a way to fulfil the needs of someone else, normally a corporation. It is never to meet your needs and never for your interests. Remember that.

This creates a plethora of societal issues.

The world wide web is an ocean and there is a feeding frenzy on your attention at the expense of your mental well-being. Anxiety, stress, fear and urgency are the results. You are made to feel that way intentionally. It is a method of control.

One way to resist the incessant bombardment of advertisement is to mentally ignore them, to filter them out. Did you ever study a webpage of an article you were reading and notice how many ads were on it? We scroll past them and do our best to ignore them. Yet, the mind still registers them and it contributes to the continual accumulation of cortisol and compliance within us.

It is difficult to be mindful of things when they are occurring on a sub-conscious level but they become truly noticeable when you extricate yourself from that marketing frenzy and start using stripped back tools that allow you to focus and work on a task of your choice, uninterrupted and without distraction. I am talking about working with words, plain text. I am talking about working with the Linux Command Line Interface (CLI).

This whole website is developed using tools that are free and open-source. People made these tools and shared them on the internet so we could use them and they didn’t ask for anything in return, only that we pay it forward.

I want us to build a good internet. I want us to communicate and collaborate effectively. I want us to stop being slaves to people that do not care about anything other than profits. A better digital world can help us all in the real world. The open-source community are already doing this. More people need to know about it.

This is my small way of paying it forward.

How I built skillissues [dot] tech#

I am including the tech stack of this website here to demonstrate how remarkable an open source internet and world wide web can be.

1. Linux CLI: A Minimal, Focused Interface#

The Linux Command-Line Interface (CLI) provides a distraction-free, minimalist approach to web development.

2. Hugo: Open-Source Static Site Generator#

Visit Hugo’s website to learn about this powerful and open-source static site generator, designed for speed and simplicity.

3. Terminal Theme by Panr: Aesthetic Simplicity#

Check out the Terminal Theme on GitHub, an open-source theme for Hugo that embodies minimalism and functionality.

4. Pexels: Free Media for Visual Enhancement#

Visit Pexels to access a library of high-quality, royalty-free images and videos, perfect for enhancing your site’s visuals.

5. Analytics by Vince: Ethical Insights#

Analytics by Vince provides lightweight and ethical tracking for website usage, aligning with minimalist and privacy-conscious principles.

6. GitHub: Open Collaboration Platform#

Learn more about GitHub, a platform for version control and collaboration, crucial for the open-source community. (This is owned by Microsoft I believe but there are alternatives that I haven’t discovered yet including Bitbucket and Gitlab).

7. VPS: Private Hosting#

Using a Virtual Private Server (VPS) ensures independence from centralized platforms and allows for full control over your website.

8. NGINX: Web Server for Content Delivery#

NGINX is an open-source web server that efficiently serves static content and manages site traffic. It is known for its high performance and scalability.