Twenty years of blogging led here

I've been blogging since 2006 — Blogger, WordPress, more recently Substack. Different platforms, same itch: a quiet page of my own where the words are the whole point.

Two sites shaped what that page should feel like. Zen Habits by Leo Babauta and Paul Graham's essays. No sidebars shouting, no pop-ups, no engagement tricks. Plain text on a calm page, and writing that respects your attention.

I wanted that for myself. So I hand-edited Blogger templates, hacked WordPress themes, and bent every platform I used toward the same ideal. It never quite got there. Building your own home on the web used to be genuinely hard.

Then the ground shifted. Knowledge is abundant, and skills are easier to acquire than ever. So after twenty years, I finally built the page I'd been chasing — the one you're reading.

There's an irony in the timing. AI was supposed to make software simpler. Instead, most of it keeps getting louder and busier, when it could be quieter than ever. Scrawl is my answer: a plain, calm space for people who are drawn to minimalism.

If Zen Habits or Paul Graham's essays ever felt like home to you too, this was built for you.