What’s a blogroll?
The small web is great, but it’s also hard to discover. There isn’t (and should not be) a centralized resource with all the blogs you should follow. The beauty of the small web is that anyone can join, sites are very personal and weird, and there’s no algorithm in charge.
My favorite way to discover new blogs is by link-following. Most of the blogs I read were discovered because they were referenced by others I already knew about. So I’m increasingly convinced that people who want to promote and help the small/indie web have the social responsibility of recommending and linking to other blogs.
This blogroll is my way to give back.
Below is a list of some blogs that I follow. This is not my full RSS subscription list, but a subset, subject to change in the future. Each has a short introduction, and sometimes links to some good entry points or my favorites.
Last updated: 2026-01-16
Aether Mug / Plankton Valhalla
Marco was an amazing find. He’s very prolific and writes about a series of different topics, always with an interesting (and mostly scientific) take on them. He keeps two different blogs: Aether Mug and Plankton Valhalla. In his own words: “[Aether Mug] is about something, however, and something that I consider existentially, transcendentally important. The appropriate name for that something still eludes me, but I think it will transpire to the reader after reading more than a couple of these disconnected posts.”
Amelia Wattenberger
Amelia’s blog is the opposite of the common black text on white background blog. Her articles are full of color, texture and interactivity. You would be forgiven for thinking that it’s all flashy distraction with no substance, and you’d be wrong. The content is very interesting and engaging, and everything on screen is intentional to support her ideas. She hasn’t been very active lately, but I’ll definitely read anything that comes next.
Boz
Andrew Bosworth’s blog is the simple, clean, black text on white background type (but very elegant in that regard). And it’s great. Boz is the CTO of Meta (Facebook), and usually shares short articles about his beliefs on work and life. You won’t find many technical breakdowns on his site, as he focuses mostly on the generalities of work, rather than any specific technology. His site encapsulates something I love about the small web (from one of the top Facebook execs!): candid, simple thoughts of someone who would be mostly inaccessible to many.
Basic Apple Guy
As the name implies, this is a blog from a fellow Apple nerd writing about his passion and interest in Apple. He (no public name given) doesn’t work primarily as a journalist or a technologist, so the blog really feels like a side gig in the best possible way. He’s also constantly releasing Apple-related merch and wallpapers.
Daring Fireball
John Gruber is the other end of the spectrum, a famous and professional writer, also focusing mostly on Apple. Daring Fireball has been around since 2002, and he was one of the creators of Markdown. He has two RSS feeds: one with only his main pieces and one with all the posts. I started following the main one, then moved to the other and read almost everything he posts.
Chris Butler
Chris’ website was one of the first to get me into the small web. He’s a “graphic designer with over twenty years of experience in interaction design, product design, design leadership and training, and business and marketing strategy.” He has a minimal and elegant website with a big archive full of interesting opinions and texts mostly about design and tech.
- Simplification Takes Courage - Christopher Butler
- The Testing Trap - Christopher Butler
- Know What You Need
DHH
David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) is a very famous developer in the community. Co-founder of Basecamp and creator of Ruby on Rails and Omarchy distro. He’s been working in the open for a long time. One of the reasons I like reading his content is that he often takes non-standard views about tech, management, or the world. Some I disagree with, but I always take them into consideration. Great to read opposing takes that sometimes make me change my mind.
Harsh Browns
Steve is a product manager working with the UK government. He has an extensive back catalog on his personal website Harsh Browns, as well as some content on his company’s website Boring Magic. I like reading it for his down-to-earth experience in product management and his candid sharing of his challenges and ways of working.
Herman’s Blog
Herman is the creator of the Bear Blog platform. He’s what some might call a lifestyle-bootstrapped indie founder. Which means he has a profitable small business that he runs by himself and that allows him to live his desired lifestyle. He writes “short-to-mid length essays about life, tech, and whatever I currently find interesting.”
Irrational Exuberance
Will is a veteran software engineer and manager, also a writer of several books. His writing “ranges a bit from personal stories to technical advice”. I love his definition of being a writer who operates. I highly recommend his content for anyone wanting to work better with tech within an organization.
Jason Fried
Jason is the colleague of DHH, also a founder of Basecamp and very vocal about his beliefs about how to run a company and build products. I really like his unconventional takes and his principles on making great products. His article about The Obvious, the Easy, and the Possible is one of the most influential to me. I keep coming back to this one constantly.
Josh Collinsworth
Josh is “a frontend developer, designer, writer, and teacher”. On his blog he shares some personal stories and the projects he’s working on (including some tech breakdowns and tutorials). My own website was heavily influenced by his SvelteKit blog tutorial.
- The blissful zen of a good side project
- Rare words in common phrases, and how to avoid getting them wrong
Justin Jackson
Founders building cool digital products and sharing candid experience and advice are a recurring theme. Justin fits this theme perfectly. He co-founded Transistor.fm, and writes mostly about the reality of a bootstrapped startup. Really high-value content. And a blog with super unique design style, so that’s a nice plus.
Karpathy
Andrej Karpathy is one of the most famous figures in the AI space, for good reason. Some of his projects are very technical, but I think most of his writing is really accessible and valuable for anyone interested in AI.
Kev Quirk
I think Kev’s blog is the definition of the small web. Personal blog, with lots of personality, where he shares what he thinks is interesting. Lots of life experiences, tech opinions, link sharing, about blogging, RSS and the indie web.
MacWright
Tom is a software developer and founder of Val Town. He mostly shares updates on his journey of being an early-stage founder. His 2023-2025 Val Town retrospective is one of my favorites. He doesn’t ride hype or try to sell himself too much, he’s just writing candid reflections of his challenges and ways of working.
Maggie Appleton
Maggie opened my mind to what a personal website could be. Similar to Amelia, her little corner of the internet is much more than just words on the screen. Her garden is so full of personality and style it’s impossible not to want to spend hours exploring there. Like a great physical space. Add that to great writing skills and you’ve got an amazing place on the internet.
- Growing a Human: The First 30 Weeks
- Tools for Thought as Cultural Practices, not Computational Objects
- Daily Notes Pages
- Command K Bars
Matt Webb
Matt is also a software developer and very active on his personal blog. As of right now, he’s published for 303 consecutive weeks! (This number will get outdated very soon). I really like his explorations of the internet as real spaces to hang out and interact.
One Useful Thing
Ethan is an AI figure who is not a software developer, which is already interesting. He’s an MBA professor who studies “entrepreneurship & innovation and AI”. His writing mostly focuses on the practical aspects of AI, both tips for how to better use it and reports on real-life applications.
- Against “Brain Damage”
- Making AI Work: Leadership, Lab, and Crowd
- The Bitter Lesson versus The Garbage Can
Robin Sloan
Robin is a unique figure, and I really like that. He’s a published fiction writer, and has been writing about the “intersection of media and technology” for more than a decade. (He also sells Olive Oil online!?). His content is mostly about technology and our interaction with it. It’s a unique view on our daily lives. He has a blog, some newsletters and more.
- An app can be a home-cooked meal
- Muscular imagination (About Iain M. Banks)
- The grand designer was mortal after all (About J.R.R. Tolkien)
- Robin Sloan’s colophon
Simon Willison
Simon is my favorite way to stay up-to-date on AI. He’s not a journalist, but a very prolific writer. He’s the co-creator of Django and has been blogging since 2002. Nowadays he writes a lot about AI, but not exclusively. I really like that he’s constantly quoting other people and highlighting or commenting on new technologies.
Westenberg
Westenberg is a new one for me. But it has already been the source for a few reflections. The articles vary in topic, but the goal is stated on the about page: “to think in public.” A blog that I plan to keep checking to challenge my ways of thinking and presenting me with new ideas.
xkcd
Does xkcd need an introduction? You might not know Randall Munroe’s site by name but there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of his comics online. “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” Best experienced rather than described, just check his homepage. And after reading the most recent one, enjoy clicking on “random”.