Author: Ben Wilkoff
A New Way To Blog
I have fully given up on running my own server. After 20 years of "owning" my own space online, I have finally moved everything over to running it on Github as static files. This is both far less complicated and far more interesting for this moment in time. I want to be able to manipulate all of my content via API. I want to be able to build things on top of it and pull it a whole bunch of different ways without needing Wordpress' permission to do so.
However, I did need to make sure that the full 20 years of Learning is Change was preserved, and for the most part, it is. I still need to figure out RSS feeds if I want to keep on making those work, but for now I'm pretty satisfied with the fact that after about a day of tinkering with Claude.AI, I was able to re-write the entire function of posting new content and updating all of the category, tag, yearly, and monthly archive pages while preserving silly things like breadcrumbs and navigation. This is the first post in the new format, and I think it looks rather nice.
I also can upload pictures and do fancy formatting. Because I have relied upon Wordpress for so many years, I really haven't thought about just what I could make this blog and my own writing space be. But, now that they are just dumb HTML files, I can do pretty much anything I want. Here is to the future of Learningischange.com. May it become exactly what it always should be, a reflection of who I am in this moment in time. In November 2025, I wrote over 50,000 words. (Hint: I'm The Laserdisc Leftist on this list.)
My Oldest Son’s Last Week of High School
I remember blogging on this very site when I was turning 25 and I was about to have my first child. I remember the goals I had for myself then. Write a book, record a record, have a first child, and continue my graduate school education. I got exactly one …
A Blogging Device
I have always wanted a blogging device. A “computer” for lack of a better term that could only do one thing: Blog. I wanted the ability to write at a moment’s notice and post to my blog without any of the friction of having to login or make changes to …
On Not Reading the News
I used to read the news. At all times of the day and night. I used to perseverate upon every new headline and breaking story. For years I did this. And I wasn’t really sure how to stop. I knew that it wasn’t healthy for me. I knew that it …
Go for a Walk
I have taken to walking our dog at night after the temperature dips just enough to make the evening air inviting. I started trying to listen to podcasts during my constitutional, but I found that I was just getting angry or tired, so I switched to music that I know …
The Path Not Taken
I am such an enormous fan of the work that John and Hank Green are doing to help democratize education. From Crash Course to Study Hall, they are constantly looking for ways to make engaging learning opportunities for the broadest group of people possible. And then they drop something like …
Summer Camp in 2024
Every summer, our children are out of school. And yet, I am not out of work over the summer. You can see the problem this poses for getting work done. So, every summer, our kids are involved in various “camps” and “activities” that will help me to get work done. …
Writing to Have Written
I deeply believe in the idea that no one actually wants to write a book. They want to HAVE WRITTEN a book. They want the destination more than the process. They want the comfort and resolution that comes from having completed the work. They do not revel the toil. They …
Don’t Look Away.
I am glad that I don’t live in a war-zone. I’m glad that I cannot hear shelling outside of my home. I’m grateful that I am not packing up my family and having to travel across the border of my home nation to venture into a future that is completely …
The Best Case Scenario
I heard multiple experts this weekend proclaiming that a “tactical nuclear weapon” was a likely outcome for Putin, especially if he believes he is losing the war in Ukraine. There was a fire at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe after Putin’s forces attacked it. More than 1.5 million …
The Best Video Essays of All Time (IMO)
The video essay is not a brand new art form and it wasn’t created from scratch by YouTube’s algorithmic interest in long-form video that increases “watch time.” People have been constructing commentaries on popular culture and on “important works of art” since there was culture popular enough to be commented …