Show HN: A lightning fast personal website built with Next.js

Show HN: A lightning fast personal website built with Next.js(jdnordstrom.com)

1 points by jdnordy 6 years ago | 8 comments

jdnordy 6 years ago |

Job hunting during a global pandemic is not easy. I send out 5 applications a day with a custom cover letter and hear back on 1 out of 10, usually a rejection, not even a phone screen. Available, qualified candidates are on the rise and hiring freezes abound.

But amidst all this craziness, the last thing I wanted to avoid distraction. I needed a project to continue growing as an engineer and doing what I love--coding.

I recently spoke with a friend from undergrad, Jared Gorski. We talked about web development, his work at Liferay, my work on Nautilus (a dev tool that visualizes Docker Compose instances). He also started sharing with my how he recently updated his website to improve speed. After our conversation, I checked it out and was inspired. I had already been thinking about SSR (server side rendering) and how to leverage it. Thus, the mission to build this website was born.

I would love any feedback from the Hack News community on the site. Thanks!

gregjor 6 years ago |

Wouldn't the fastest web site consist of static HTML files? I don't see anything that needs React or any rendering or build step. Writing JS that does nothing more than put HTML in the DOM seems like a Rube Goldberg contraption for a site with static content.

jdnordy 6 years ago | |

Great point. I actually wrote about this as I reflect on building the website. Next.js pre-renders the static files at build time, so JavaScript isn’t building the site on the client side or even on the server side. You get the benefit of writing in React (DRY, modular, and JavaScript focused) over just writing HTML.

gregjor 6 years ago | | |

You have to weigh costs when talking about benefits. In the case of a small site with static content, you could write it with no JS code at all. The React code arguably makes it DRY and modular and all that, but unnecessarily. Now it's an order of magnitude more complex, with dependencies and a rendering step that don't need to exist at all.

DRY, modular, etc. are not blanket principles that one must honor at all cost, in every circumstance. They are ways to simplify and organize complex code bases. Not making the code base complex in the first place takes first place, though.

Brian Kernighan wrote "Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming." The best way to control complexity is to eliminate it, and not introduce it in the first place.