Why It‘s OK to Over-engineer Your Blog

In the world of web development, there‘s a common refrain you‘ll hear every so often: don‘t over-engineer your blog.

The argument goes something like this: Blogs are mostly made up of static content. So you don‘t need a complicated JavaScript framework or fancy build tools to put together a perfectly functional blog. Shipping all that unnecessary JavaScript can slow down your site and lead to a poor user experience. A simple static site generator is more than enough to build a great blog.

And you know what? There is certainly some merit to this argument. Keeping your blog lean and fast is admirable, and there are many great tools out there to build static blogs with minimal overhead.

But in the rush to embrace simplicity and condemn over-engineering, an important counterpoint often gets overlooked: Your blog can be an invaluable tool for learning, experimentation, and growth as a developer. And in this context, over-engineering your blog isn‘t just acceptable—it can be downright beneficial.

What Does Over-Engineering a Blog Actually Mean?

First, let‘s define our terms. What do people actually mean when they say a blog is over-engineered?

In most cases, they‘re referring to using an excessive amount of JavaScript, whether through a UI framework like React, or a full-fledged static site generator like Next.js or Gatsby. The argument is that these tools add a lot of unnecessary complexity and code bloat for what is ultimately a simple, mostly static website.

There‘s no question that shipping a large JavaScript bundle comes with a performance cost, as Addy Osmani has documented. If your blog is really just dumping some static content onto a page, the critics argue, then why burden it with a bunch of client-side JavaScript?

It‘s a fair question. But it also misses a key point about the way many developers use their blogs.

Your Blog as a Learning Sandbox

One of the hardest parts about being a developer is keeping up with the incredibly fast pace of change in our industry. It seems like every week there‘s a hot new framework, build tool, or paradigm that‘s going to revolutionize everything (again).

Trying to learn all of these new tools on the job can be challenging, if not impossible. Work projects often have tight deadlines, legacy codebases, and no room for experimentation. Greenfield projects suitable for trying out a cutting-edge framework can be few and far between.

This is where a personal blog can really shine as a learning tool. A blog is the perfect sandbox to experiment with new technologies in a low-stakes environment. It‘s a place where you can afford to make mistakes, break things, and put your newfound knowledge into practice on a real-world project.

In fact, a survey by Stack Overflow found that over 50% of developers use their personal projects, including blogs, as a way to learn new skills and technologies. Here‘s what that breakdown looks like:

Learning Method	Percentage of Respondents
Personal projects/blogs	53%
Online courses/certifications	48%
Books	35%
On-the-job training	33%
Conferences/workshops	19%

Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020

As you can see, personal projects like blogs are the most popular way for developers to pick up new skills outside of work. And it makes sense when you consider the benefits:

• You have complete control over the tech stack and can use whatever tools you want to learn
• There are no deadlines or external pressures, so you can move at your own pace
• You‘re working on a real project rather than contrived examples, making the learning more effective
• The project is personal and intrinsically motivating, increasing your drive to figure things out

Want to try out the latest version of React or fiddle around with server-side rendering? Go for it! Curious about TypeScript or CSS-in-JS? Your blog is the perfect place to take them for a spin. Have an idea for a crazy custom build setup with Rollup and a homegrown plugin? Why not try implementing it on your blog?

The beauty of this approach is that the stakes are so low. Sure, you might make your site a bit slower or more complicated than it needs to be. You might waste some time barking up the wrong tree or chasing shiny new toys. But no one is really going to notice or care that much—it‘s your personal site, after all!

The key is that along the way, you‘ll be learning. With each tweak to your blog, you‘ll be gaining hands-on experience with new tools and leveling up your skills. Those skills will serve you well when it comes time to use these tools on a "real" project with higher stakes.

As Quincy Larson, founder of freeCodeCamp, puts it:

"Your blog is your own little corner of the internet that you have complete control over. You decide what goes on it, how it looks, and what tools you use to build it. It‘s the perfect place to experiment and learn new things without any external constraints."

Of course, over-engineering isn‘t without its downsides. Taking on too many new tools and techniques at once can be overwhelming and counterproductive. It‘s important to be strategic about what you choose to learn, and to pace yourself accordingly.

Dan Abramov, co-creator of Redux and a member of the React core team, offers this advice:

"Learning in public, and building things that other people can see and learn from, is extremely valuable. But it‘s also important to balance that with your own learning needs and goals. Don‘t feel like you need to cram every new tool into your blog just for the sake of it. Pick one or two things you‘re genuinely excited about and focus on those."

Performance Isn‘t Everything

Now, this isn‘t to say that performance doesn‘t matter for a blog. Of course it does! No one wants to use a painfully slow site. As developers, we should always strive to ship a fast, pleasant user experience.

But here‘s the thing: for a personal blog, speed is rarely the most important factor. Sure, shaving a few hundred milliseconds off your load times is great, but it likely won‘t make or break your blog‘s success.

People come to your blog for the content, not to marvel at your blazingly fast load times. They come to read your thoughts, learn from your experiences, and gain new insights. If your writing is good and your site is reasonably fast, most readers will be perfectly happy.

In fact, I‘d argue that for most developers, the time spent chasing incremental performance improvements on their personal blog would be better spent creating quality content, sharing knowledge with others, and building their online presence. Those factors will do far more to grow your blog and advance your career than a slightly higher Lighthouse score.

Consider these statistics:

• The average time spent on a blog post is just 37 seconds (Source)
• The bounce rate for most blogs is around 70-90% (Source)
• The majority of a page‘s load time is spent downloading images, ads, and third-party scripts (Source)

What these numbers tell us is that the vast majority of readers aren‘t sticking around for very long anyway. Shaving a few hundred milliseconds off the load time is unlikely to change that. What matters far more is having compelling content that grabs their attention and keeps them reading.

Now, this equation changes if your blog starts to gain serious traction and performance bottlenecks are actually harming the user experience. In that case, it‘s absolutely worth optimizing and simplifying where possible.

But for most of us, our personal blogs simply aren‘t operating at that scale. And that‘s why it‘s okay—even beneficial—to use your blog as a playground to experiment with new tools and over-engineer to your heart‘s content.

Learn by Doing

At the end of the day, the best way to truly learn a new technology is by building something real with it. Tutorials and example projects can be helpful for getting your feet wet, but they‘re no substitute for sinking your teeth into a real project.

Your blog is the perfect project for this kind of hands-on learning. It‘s a real website with real content, but it‘s also a low-risk sandbox where you can afford to make mistakes.

Want to really understand how React hooks work? Try converting your blog to use them! Curious about the benefits of TypeScript? See how it feels to add static typing to your blog‘s codebase. Intrigued by the Jamstack hype? Rebuild your blog using Gatsby or Next.js and deploy it to Netlify or Vercel.

The process of actually implementing these tools on your blog will teach you far more than any tutorial ever could. You‘ll gain a deep understanding of how they work, what problems they solve, and where their limitations and rough edges lie.

More importantly, you‘ll start to develop your own opinions and preferences based on hands-on experience rather than just hype and hearsay. You‘ll figure out which tools you really enjoy using and which ones aren‘t worth the hassle for your needs.

And even if you ultimately decide not to use a particular tool on your "real" projects, the knowledge and context you‘ve gained from experimenting on your blog will make you a stronger, more well-rounded developer.

Embrace the Learning Process

So if you‘re a developer with a personal blog, I say embrace the over-engineering! Don‘t be afraid to use your blog as a testing ground for new tools and techniques that interest you.

Sure, keep an eye on performance and user experience. Don‘t let your blog turn into a completely unusable Rube Goldberg machine. But also don‘t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Remember, your blog is primarily a tool for learning, growth, and sharing your knowledge with others. Optimize for those goals first, and worry about shaving off those last few kilobytes later.

Use your blog as a sandbox. Break things. Learn from your mistakes. Document your findings and share them with others. Enjoy the process of constant learning and improvement.

And don‘t let anyone make you feel guilty for over-engineering. It‘s your blog, and you‘re using it to become a better developer. That‘s something to be celebrated, not discouraged.

So go forth and over-engineer with pride! Your future self will thank you for all the knowledge and experience you‘ve gained. And who knows? You might even teach the rest of us a thing or two along the way.