ADHD, Overbuilding, and the Blog I Finally Want to Keep

09/27/2025, 2:28 AMGeneralMeta

I’ve built countless blogs over the years—WordPress, Ghost, Squarespace, even hand-rolled React projects. But none of them stuck around, because they were playgrounds for coding, not places for writing. Project Atlas is different: I built it to last, with Next.js and Prisma, so I can finally focus on the words instead of the scaffolding.

It’s easy to go overboard with an idea—especially if you have ADHD like me. This blog is proof of that.

This week, I decided I wanted a blog again. I’ve had many over the years, but I’ve never stuck with any of them. Sometimes I wonder what it would look like if those posts were still around. Even sparse, they’d be an archive.

Over time, I’ve tried every platform: WordPress, Ghost, Squarespace, and a handful of custom builds with Bootstrap, Foundation, React, Handlebars, and more. Honestly, they were all playgrounds. I didn’t build a blog because I wanted to write—I built a blog because I wanted to code.

Project Atlas

This time is different. I built a blog because I wanted to write. I called it Project Atlas. From the start, I set some constraints:

  • No pre-built platforms. I wanted full control over both the public site and the admin panel.
  • I had to be able to publish without committing to git and triggering a rebuild.
  • No vibe-coding. I could lean on AI for scaffolding, but I had to understand and explain every line of code to myself.

After some research, I landed on a stack: Next.js + Prisma. I already knew Next.js, but Prisma was new—and surprisingly easy to pick up. I’d definitely use it again.

At first, I wanted to build my own editor, but when textarea refused to cooperate, I went with CodeMirror.

What’s Next?

Beyond writing more, I want to add image support and refine the reading experience. The admin panel feels solid, but the front end could use polish.

Longer term, I’d like to revisit building my own editor, figure out what went wrong with textarea, and maybe add comments, open graph, and analytics. But for now, the blog is live. Time to focus on the writing.