Start with a plain text file
Before picking tools, write down what the thing needs to do. A shopping list needs a place to add items and a way to cross them off. Everything else can wait until those two parts feel right.
A small notebook
Little things,
carefully made.
A few notes on making things for the web, keeping them simple, and remembering how they work.
From the notebook
Leave room for the words
For a page with a lot of text, start with lines around 60–75 characters wide. Give the paragraphs some breathing room. Then open it on your phone: a heading that looks tidy on a monitor can take up half a small screen.
Keep a record of the fix
Save the error message, what caused it, and the change that fixed it. Include the exact command if there was one. “Fixed the config” is surprisingly unhelpful when you find the note six months later.
A useful note doesn't have to be a whole article.
About this corner
Fieldnotes is a place for small, practical ideas about building things on a computer. A notebook rather than a feed: a few observations, kept simple and easy to come back to.