2026-01-19
Earlier this week, I was sucked into this thread: Ask HN: Share your personal website. Paging through people's personal websites is great; there are plenty of examples of creativity and personality on the internet and outside of social media.
Recently, I've been tinkering with my own site: starting a blog, adding an RSS feed, and revising the build process.1 The timing was great. And, one recurring feature on a few of sites were /uses pages: a list of the tools that the creator uses.
I half hoped there'd be some founding document: a post that formalized why someone should add a /uses page to their site.2 I'd read it, agree or disagree and likely move on—but I haven't seen much written about it. The utility is self-evident: colleagues, friends, and family ask for recommendations, so why not put together a resource?
But there's a broader appeal to me:
The openess is an invitation to others. I've over-done research before trying out a new interest and felt a pre-emptive imposter syndrome. Seeing what other people use, laid out plainly, can be a reminder that tools don't need to be a barrier to entry.
These pages are refreshing because they are practical. They don't send you on an artificial hunt for the "best" tool, only to leave you decoding ratings or guides—all while seeding doubt that using anything less than the "best" makes you an amateur. A /uses page simply says: I use X to do Y.
The recommendations have context. They live on a personal website, where you can learn about the creator, review their projects, and get a sense of whether or not you have shared sensibilities. For a laugh, read the worst reviews of your favorite national park on your platform of choice. Without knowing something about the reviewer, why would you take a 1-star review of Banff or Yosemite seriously? On a personal site, the context is built-in.
So, I've decided to add my own /uses page.
Send me an email if you have any recommendations or questions!
p.s. I've always been confused by the discussion about the Whole Earth Catalog. It's put forward as a unique source of insight, a cultural touchstone. It's certainly eclectic and looks subversive, but it's literally a catalog with products and prices. Now, with some reflection, I can see the point: it was an invitation to explore different topics, practically, and with context.
For years, I've used Flask, Frozen-Flask, and a few yaml and html files to manage my site. I recently revised content management to use markdown with frontmatter, which I should've done years ago. ↩
https://github.com/wesbos/awesome-uses has been starred over 5K times, but doesn't have written explanation as to "why" you should add one in the repo. And otherwise, there's this post. ↩