The Philosophy
The site uses a classless stylesheet as a foundation to ensure semantic HTML looks good by default, layered with custom scoped styles only when specific structural patterns are needed.
Design Decisions: The Classless Journey
The decision to start with a classless stylesheet was about reducing the mental overhead of styling basic elements (like headings, lists, and links). It forces a focus on semantic HTML and content hierarchy.
My journey into this approach began with discovering Simple.css—not as a heavy framework, but as an introduction to the concept that a pure stylesheet can create a functional, readable site with zero classes.
However, I don’t use it exclusively. While the classless base handles the “look” of individual elements, I utilize Astro’s scoped styles to build intentional layout structures—like the recursive “Split-Column” pattern—without polluting a global stylesheet.
Technical Architecture: Why Astro?
The site is a purely static entity. I chose Astro for its “zero-friction” content delivery and its ability to keep styles isolated where they belong.
- Styling: A custom, lightweight classless stylesheet acts as the foundation. Specific layout grids and component-level refinements are handled via scoped CSS within Astro components.
- Content: Pure Markdown/MDX. No external CMS. Everything is version-controlled and portable.
- Performance: Zero client-side JavaScript by default, resulting in instant load times and perfect SEO scores.
The Evolution (Archives)
- The Hardcoded Start: A single-page HTML monolith.
- The Gulp Era (2022): Using Pug templating and Gulp for source management.
- The Classless Introduction: Discovering pure stylesheets (Simple.css) and adopting a minimal-first mindset.
- The Custom Standard (2025): Developing the current hybrid approach of classless base styles combined with custom scoped structures.
Future Roadmap
- Integration of a dedicated Blog for technical deep-dives.
- Interactive “Knowledge Graph” for public notes.
- Advanced typography experimentation.