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Ujjwal Vivek
Ujjwal Vivek

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Took 2 years to ship this simple website. Not because of tech. And I'm really proud of it.

A long read ahead. My apologies.


A little bit of the Backstory

Had the skills. Had the ideas. Didn't have the version of me that could finish this.

After years of trying to ship for companies that claimed to love "innovation", but falters the moment you actually build focused or asked hard questions. Made meeself nauseous.

So, I built something FOR ME.
A handcrafted platform for the version of me that just wants to be seen and heard.

The website does not have a hefty tech stack attached to it but I tried to get out of my comfort zone and made something I'm really proud of.


Tech Stack

Simple old reactjs paired with markdown and that's it. No CSS frameworks. No analytics. No trackers. No SEO. Not even trying to steal a bite out of that cookie you're having.

But here's what I duct taped into this

-- Custom styled Markdown -- Procedural Background Generation (currently CPU-bound. Exploring the possibility to hand the computing over to the GPU using webGPU, for a smoother web experience) -- Theme aware (Getting the blur layer to work across all of WebKit was a PITA, contrast and readability took a hit. Would love to hear how to make the theme switcher more "aware") -- pdf.js runs the PDF viewer on this site. (would love to know of any tips and tricks to update inbuilt classes styles in a more robust way that works across all platforms, the default viewer style just doesn't match the vibe) -- A easter egg that's also a rabbit hole. (would love to know if you happen to come across it. Feedback or roasts, your call.) -- Posts written as commits.(Probably might explore a possibility of a CMS) -- Too much motion. No honestly. (Thinking of implementing a "low chaos" mode for folks who might get dizzy) 
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Showcase in Screenshots

Dark Mode
Dark Mode

Light Mode
Light Mode

Choose your vibe and color with this handcrafted procedural generators
Choose your vibe and color with this handcrafted procedural generators

Custom styled Markdown
Custom styled Markdown

A place for my Unfinished thoughts and Devlogs. Don't mind the Markdown testing page :)
A place for my Unfinished thoughts and Devlogs. Don't mind the Markdown testing page :)


still very glitchy. still evolving. but its live and I couldn't be more proud. let me know if this made you feel anything. or don't.

Feel free to check more of the backstory of how this website came to life over at my blog.

Top comments (2)

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xwero profile image
david duymelinck

Why React, it looks like a site that is not very interactive. Just add a bit of javascript when it is needed.

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ujjwalvivek profile image
Ujjwal Vivek

You're right. It's the classic sunk cost fallacy.
I started with a React boilerplate ages ago and didn’t want to throw it away.
In hindsight, this project didn’t even need React, buut by the time I realized, I was already too deep in.