Should I self-host my website?

Hey, Reader.

I’ve been considering locally hosting my website for a while now. I’ve been inspired by HackerNews posts like this, and I have a few Intel NUCs sitting around the house that are just waiting to be used.

So far, hosting my own website has been occupying the mental bucket of “maybe, but that would require a lot of learning.” As time has gone on, though, I’m considering it more and more.

I just read Deker Siver’s piece on tech independence. I agree with a lot of it. There’s a lot of self-sufficiency that can be derived from hosting contacts, email, website, etc. on your own system. At the same time, it is MUCH easier to do all of this via Apple, Gmail, WordPress, etc. I’m still unsure of what my next project will be, but self-hosting my website is a good option.

I’ve started making a mock-up of my website in simple HTML. If I make the move to self-hosted or psuedo-self-hosted (see Vultr and OpenBSD – thanks Derek Sivers!), I’ll let you know, and I’ll make a how-to for you as well.