For a long time I thought about keeping my writing in a git repository so that it wouldn't suddenly disappear, and so that I could write using the tool I'm most comfortable with (Emacs). But setting it all up didn't seem worth the time and effort. Generative AI brought the time and effort down to where it was worth it.

With generative AI, all I had to write myself was a README file. I put in a heading, "How this repo came about", and laid out my thoughts about what I wanted. Then I had a conversation with AI to finish the README, including instructions to set it up.

Now that it's working, writing in this blog feels really nice.

• My writing is just markdown files, which are super easy. I don't have to think hard about the process of writing.
• I don't need Internet connectivity in order to write.
• As someone accustomed to git, I have a history of revisions basically for free.
• Publishing is simply git push.
• If I later move to some other system, it will be easy to move the posts to that system.
• If the place I publish to now (GitLab Pages) suddenly goes away, I have a complete copy on my personal laptop and can easily find a new place to publish it.
• There are no ads, per se. The "revisions" links on my posts do point back to GitLab, but that's by my choice.

If your tastes are similar to mine, you can have a setup like this in less time than it takes to write one post.