I'll Quit My Job and Buy a Farm - Alin Panaitiu

A few days ago, I shared this post with reference to a blog post written as A Love Letter To The Personal Website. Today, I wanted to share a blog post I came across I think embodies the same spirit, and why it's meaningful to me. I'll give some background about why I would qualify this as living in the spirit of the Old Web, then talk about the post itself.

For some context, Alin Panaitiu is a Romanian software developer (and hobbyist spoon carver) who built an app that I actually have purchased before to solve a niche problem I was having with my computer monitors. This was a few months ago. And let me say, the software remains a delight to use. On the day of my purchase, I reached out to the developer to thank them.

This is a revised version of what I wrote them:

Hi Alin!

The reason I am sending you this message is because I wanted you to know that your app will have a tangible effect on my day to day. I know it sounds small, but needing to constantly click the Control Center on my computer to adjust the display brightness over and over again takes a toll on my hand. Because of the past and not having good ergonomics, using the mouse too much often hurts my wrist when I have to use the mouse to click things. So, thank you for making this amazing app!

And finally, the MAIN reason I am sending you this is because I like to find out about who I am buying my software from before I make a purchase. First I read your post I'll quit my job and buy a farm. Then I found the one about Costs of running a macOS app studio business.

I really admire your commitment to your values which is very obvious in your writing. Your documented journey into spoon carving from tech just feels very human and personal. It was very easy for me to decide that I want to give you my money as a customer.

This is what they responded:

Thank you for the warm message made my day! 😊

I didn't think there are still people reading those blog posts, good to know 😅

My thoughts on this post:

One of the reasons (and the simplest reason) I consider this qualifying as having an Old Web spirit while being created in the current time is because the author really wasn't expecting someone to come to them and praise their work.

I am willing to bet that this was cathartic for Alin to write in its own right. It's informative and entertaining, maybe insightful even, for us. But for the author, I'm willing to bet it was just a place to gather their thoughts and share it on their own terms.

That's kind of how I feel about the things I see on Digg that I love the most right now. This is the spirit of the old web. Go out and create something. Honor that personal website. Craft a space online for yourself, and share it.

I hope that me sharing this gets other people inspired to build and share. I 100% guarantee you Alin has no idea that I'm writing about this. I simply wanted to share because it resonated with me, and because I liked it. Not a "I clicked Like" liked it. A "I really thoroughly enjoyed it" liked it.

Remember, the web is what we make of it! :)