This website is probably not for you...
- manny Dokter
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 26
...because it is by me for me.
And that’s okay. It’s not supposed to be. It’s not minimalist, optimized, SEO-pleasing beige chaos in Helvetica Neue. It doesn’t follow conventional marketing formulas or try to whisper sweet nothings into your dopamine-starved brain. It’s for me.
Because, hi. I’ve spent most of my life being the odd one out. The too-much and the not-enough all rolled into one suspiciously quiet, slightly intense package. I got good grades, followed rules, stayed in my lane - but only because I was running a full-time, behind-the-scenes operation of masking and micromanaging to make sure nobody deemed me as too weird.
I’m a requirements engineer. I know how to make polished, functional, professional-grade digital things. I know about usability testing, design systems, accessibility, UI heuristics. I can design a clean website in my sleep.
But when it came to building something just for myself? I got stuck. Over and over again. Perfectionism would kick in, then fear, then a lovely swirl of analysis paralysis until the whole thing quietly died in a folder labeled "Projects – Someday." I had ideas. So many ideas. But the pressure to do them "right" kept me from even starting.
So naturally, I threw all of that out the window for this one.
Because this isn’t a client project. It’s a lifeline.
A little while ago, I packed up my entire life, said goodbye to my friends, routines, and the very specific systems that helped me function, and moved to the other side of the world for love and family. Romantic, right? Until my coping mechanisms promptly burst into flames.
Turns out, you can’t outrun burnout. Or executive dysfunction. Or the creeping realization that maybe it wasn’t just anxiety after all.
And that’s when I finally started the slow, frustrating, enlightening process of getting an actual diagnosis. Because no amount of perfectly color-coded Notion templates was going to patch the leaks anymore. I needed therapy. I needed strategies that didn’t rely on brute-force masking. I needed to figure out who I was when I wasn’t pretending to be a productivity robot with feelings.
So I built this site.
For me.
As a form of creative therapy. As a rebellion against all the things I was told I should be. As a way to put something into the world that felt like me, even if it broke all the rules I used to swear by.
I showed it to a friend - one of those rare people who really sees you - and her immediate reaction was: “This is so YOU.”
That’s the biggest compliment I could ever get.
So yeah, this website is probably not for you.
Unless you’re also weird. And tired. And maybe a little over trying to be palatable.
Unless you’ve also built entire internal worlds to cope with a reality that keeps asking you to be something you’re not.
Unless you see the value in snack-fueled chaos, coffee-stained ideas, and cartoons that speak louder than words.
Then maybe, just maybe, this website is also for you.
Welcome, fellow weirdo. I made this for me. But I’m happy you’re here.
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