Initially, I was planning on creating a pure React Application, and I don’t exactly remember how (one of my friends/co-workers might have made a comment about it most likely) I ended considering two tools: Gatsby JS and Next JS.

I built a small prototype with both of them (oh the time I’ve spent on this project…) and decided to continue with Gatsby JS.

I don’t want to go super technical in these posts, but I particularly liked how lightweight and flexible Gatsby is.

One of the other reasons behind my decision was a blog post written by Ali Spittel. I was able to take a look at her blog and at the source code that powered it.

I asked Ali for permission to use her blog repository as a base to create my own, and she gleefully gave me her seal of approval.

Once I was ready to start working (around June 2019), I made a couple of moves in parallel:

Hiring a Professional

I hired a graphic designer: Sarah Fischer. I knew for a fact that I wanted to put my money where my mouth was, and I…also knew for a fact that my design skills are not very good. Sarah is currently working on her own company, but I initially met her as my co-worker at Code Fellows.

One of the main ideas I wanted to convey with Cadejo was the fact that computer science is a beautiful subject. I remember looking at one of her designs and thinking “WOW that’s beautiful”. I decided to hire her to work on Cadejo as soon as she opened her own business.

If you pay attention to my website, I’m trying to open my articles with a beautiful picture that sets the tone for the journey.

Ok…I know I know! I know it goes against practical advice to spend a considerable amount of money when you are just first starting your website. Even Ramit advices against it, however; I really wanted to convey the beautiful side of computer science with Cadejo, and having such a powerful brand from the start really ignited my spirits.