nedkochulev.com

Key Contributions

• Built a Markdown-first website using Jekyll and LiquidJS

• Integrated Tailwind with custom styling

• Deployments using GitHub Actions

Case study

I created this website as a space to document my developer journey and share learnings in a way that feels natural to me. Since I already use Obsidian.md for personal note-taking, it was essential to adopt a Markdown-based workflow that would let me publish content with minimal friction.

After exploring static site generators, I landed on Jekyll and immediately appreciated its simplicity and Markdown-first philosophy. I paired it with Tailwind and some custom styles to keep the design clean and unobtrusive - deliberately avoiding the overuse of animations or interactive elements often seen in personal sites.

Content deployment is handled through GitHub Actions, which automatically builds and ships updates to my hosting provider. My writing workflow stays entirely local - I draft and maintain everything in Obsidian, synced via Seafile to my homelab. When ready, I just trigger a build-and-deploy and the site updates itself from Markdown.

I’ve come to appreciate the constraints of Markdown and LiquidJS — they encourage me to focus on content rather than complexity. Every piece I publish is a reminder that thoughtful simplicity can be more impactful than flashy design.

The result is a lightweight, content-focused platform that supports my personal growth as a developer - built to stay out of the way and let the writing speak for itself.

Deep-dive

If you're curious about the implementation decisions and lessons learned while building this project, grab a coffee and dive into the full story: