Sturm und Drang
gegen Weltuntergang
A cute little distich in German. Sturm und Drang meaning both the literary epoch
and an enthusiastic mood, an atmosphere of departure - all that to fight against
the end of the world, the bad, the status quo. Dismissing current rules and practices,
just as I am doing it with this blog.
A few months ago, I would have never thought I would abandon Wordpress. The go-to CMS, my content management software of choice, the open-source project I've used for nearly a decade. But then again, what have we all thought a few months ago in early 2020? And how has life changed in such a short time - a feeling of real Sturm und Drang.
So instead of strategizing and developing web projects with Wordpress in mind, the future for myself and probably for my tech-business will be built on static-site-generators (SSG) like Gatsby. It is blazing fast.
I normally tend to put functionality and design before an extra speed-gain of a few milliseconds. However, with Gatsby, there virtually exsists no loading time. I could probably entertain you with many metaphors about how fast Gatsby is - but you should try it yourself. Actually, you're currently using a website using Gatsby - it's this blog ;)
And before I elaborate more on Gatsby and its technical details - I'm still a Gastby-Newbie. Just as I've been a Wordpress newbie in 2010. It is the start of another journey. A securer, slimmer and faster one.
As with every journey I've started, I've always appreciated the mentality of a work-in-progress approach - always learning, being curious, sharing milestones, growing with the time. Finally, I do want to share a metaphor with you:
A project (like this blog) can be seen as a flower or as a plant and it can be worked on in the dark, in the shadows, waiting for its release indefinitely, probably dying before seeing any light. On the other hand, releasing the plant too early to the harsh sunlight without watering it, and the plant will burn to ashes. Commiting to nurture the project continuosly, rigorously, while letting it grow in the light of the sun seems to be the viable, healthy and (most importantly) the most enjoyable solution.
However in the end, there is only one way to find out,
and it is to start.
* To be fair, I am not completely abandoning Wordpress, and there still is a chance for the GOAT-CMS to celebrate a comeback. A dynamic PHP-driven CMS generating a static site could be such a solution. Managed webservers (running PHP) are cheap and readily available. Node.js capable servers however are not. As long as Node.js capable servers don't get streamlined as PHP-running webservers are, Wordpress still has a chance.
03.08.2020