On minimalism, again

Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.

from <cite>Letters from a Stoic</cite>, Seneca

Minimalism was one of the driving forces behind the making of diary.by. In fact, in a sense, I wanted to make Saisho (which is quite minimalistic on it's own) more available to the general public, without having to host it on your own.

More often than not, we are given (and in worse cases - fed) features we don't want or need and are encouraged to use them in the sake of "progress". Progress, improvement and features are not inherently bad, but can lead to losing focus and overcomplicating tasks that should be simple and straightforward. I actually had a first-hand experience where I tried adding a missing feature to a well-known-blogging-platform¹ only to, essentially, be told that my solution is not complicated enough.

As someone that lives in relative clutter (which I do my best to minimize as well), I set myself a goal to reduce digital noise wherever I can afford it, including the public projects I am working on. I mentioned about it here.

There is a delicate balance between adding things that you will use and bring you joy, and adding them for the sake of having them. I tread this path as carefully as I can, and even more so when it comes with projects I share with the world.

Diary.by is the first project, sans Saisho, to exercise this minimalist approach, at least until my next project is released publicly. I am hoping you can find use and comfort in such an approach and platform.