Being & Thought

Overview

Being & Thought began as a personal site for essays and my first foray into web development. It has since evolved into a space where writing, design, and learning could evolve together. It acts both as an archive of ideas and as a personal workshop for developing skills across philosophy, behavioural science, and creative practice.

Intent

Being & Thought is built around developing ideas over time rather than presenting finished pieces. Writing, visuals, and structure are all part of the same process, so an idea might begin in an essay, get reworked, and then return in a more precise form.

Learning through building

This project also marks my first sustained attempt at learning to code. Moving from the Harvard web programming course to designing and maintaining this site was a substantial step, involving early familiarisation with Git, hosting workflows, deployment, and the realities of building something that actually lives on the web.

Over time, the site became a place to practise animation, layout, and foundational frontend logic, with each iteration pushing a little further than the last. Improvements were rarely planned in advance, but emerged from experimentation, mistakes, and gradual confidence. I am now learning the latest web tools and though I wish I knew about React, Next.js and Typescript earlier, I do not at all regret the process!

Creative outlet

Beyond its technical role, Being & Thought functions as a creative outlet, allowing me to explore interests in literature, art, and music, practise skills like drawing, and deliberately expose myself to ideas and domains I might not otherwise encounter.

Writing and analysis

Though I have included other elements into writing an essay, writing still remains central to the site. The site serves as a space to practise long-form thinking, but also to reflect on writing itself. I have used R and Python to analyse my own essays, exploring stylometry, such as whether different themes produce systematic shifts in language, tone, or structure.

Design and structure

I wanted the site to feel active and dynamic and therefore created a custom newsletter system built with Supabase and Resend. When a visitor subscribes, their email is stored in a Supabase PostgreSQL database and a confirmation email is sent automatically. When a new essay is published, a GitHub Actions workflow detects the new file, retrieves the subscriber list, and sends the newsletter automatically using the Resend API.