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---
title: Simplifying and reducing clutter in my life and work
url: /simplifying-and-reducing-clutter.html
date: 2019-10-14T12:00:00+02:00
type: post
draft: false
---

I recently moved my main working machine back from Hachintosh to Linux. Well the
experiment was interesting and I have done some great work on macOS but it was
time to move back.

I actually really missed Linux. The simplicity of `apt-get` or just the amount
of software that exists for Linux should be a no-brainer. I spent most of my
time on macOS finding solutions to make things work. Using
[Brew](https://brew.sh/) was just a horrible experience and far from package
managers of Linux. At least they managed to get that `sudo` debacle sorted.

Not all was bad. macOS in general was a perfectly good environment. Things like
Docker and tooling like this worked without any hiccups. My normal tools like
coding IDE worked flawlessly and the whole look and feel is just superb. I have
been using MacBook Air for couple of years so I was used to the system but never
as a daily driver.

One of the things I did after I installed Linux back on my machine was cleaning
up my Dropbox folder. I have everything on Dropbox. Even projects folder. I
write code for living so my whole life revolves around couple of megs of code
(with assets). So it's not like I have huge files on my machine. I don't have
movies or music or pictures on my PC. All of that stuff is in cloud. I use
Google music and I have Netflix account which is more than enough for me.

I also went and deleted some of the repositories on my Github account. I have
deleted more code than deployed. People find this strange but for me deleting
something feels so cathartic and also forces me to write better code next time
around when I am faced with similar problem. That was a huge relief if I am
being totally honest.

Next step was to do something with my webpage. I have been using some scripts I
wrote a while ago to generate static pages from markdown source posts. I kept on
adding and adding stuff on top of it and it became a source of a
frustration. And this is just a simple blog and I was using gulp and npm.
Anyways after couple of hours of searching and testing static generators I found
an interesting one
[https://github.com/piranha/gostatic](https://github.com/piranha/gostatic) and I
just decided to use this one. It was the only one that had a simple templating
engine, not that I really need one. But others had this convoluted way of trying
to solve everything and at the end just required quite bigger learning curve I
was ready to go with. So I deleted couple of old posts, simplified HTML, trashed
most of the CSS and went with
[https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/](https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/)
aesthetics.  Yeah, the previous site was more visually stimulating but all I
really care is the content at this point. And Times New Roman font is kind of
awesome.

I stopped working on most of the projects in the past couple of months because
the overhead was just too insane. There comes a point when you stretch yourself
too much and then you stop progressing and with that comes dissatisfaction.

So that's about it. Moving forward minimal style.