I finally decided it’s time to make another portfolio to display my work. This is the third one, and hopefully this one sticks. I got to admit, there is something both scary and charming about comebacks, that idea in itself deserves a discussion on its own. For now, I am sharing the system behind this website, and I think it’s worth talking about.

The Problem⌗

I already tried this a couple of times before, and it obviously didn’t work because here we are again. For me, this website is a medium to share ideas and projects, a tool to help me track the things I’m working towards. Some sort of building in public, we do love to do that these days.

The problem I faced all these past times is that this website felt less like a tool for presenting and expressing, and more like a project I have to maintain. I found myself many times spending hours fixing the framework I use rather than actually using it to store my ideas. I tried to get inspired from many sources and steal their systems; books, YouTube videos… I just needed a system that works so I can stop worrying about the structure of the ideas and start worrying about the ideas themselves.

The Desire Path⌗

So what did I end up doing? Instead of choosing a system and adapting to it, why not make a system that would adapt to me?

This is a concept called the desire path — here is a 3-minute video explaining it. In a nutshell, human nature will ignore the designed paths and choose paths which are deemed more efficient. Think of those dirt trails cutting across a perfectly manicured park lawn. That’s what I wanted: stop designing paths I’ll never walk, and pave the ones I already do.

How My Brain Works⌗

I ended up finding out that my brain works in chunks. I’d have many ideas and revelations throughout the day, some big, some not really worth the discussion. Usually I’d share them with someone next to me, or text them to a friend over WhatsApp. That’s the first chunk: raw ideas.

The ideas that are worthy, the ones I actually take action on, become things I make. Say an idea for a video game project, or an app that would make someone’s life easier. That’s the second chunk: things I build.

Then the idea opens up a whole field of research about a new topic, which is nice because we are curious about everything. The best and hardest part about these ideas is the implementation; if I thought about an idea for an app, and I actually push through and flesh out the plan, I have to learn the tools necessary to make it. And since that’s already what I do (thanks to engineering school), this is the perfect opportunity to learn new concepts and paradigms before using them in the real world. That’s the third chunk: things I learn.

So the pattern looks something like this:

  • A raw thought enters my head → I jot it down
  • Some of those thoughts turn into projects → I start building
  • Building forces me to learn new things → I document the knowledge This system wasn’t something I sat down and designed. It’s a pattern I noticed.

Enter Yu-Gi-Oh⌗

And this reminded me a lot of the academy system in Yu-Gi-Oh GX (big fan, by the way).

For the unfamiliar: Yu-Gi-Oh is an anime I used to watch as a kid and have a lot of memories with. People have decks of cards they use to battle, and each card represents a monster, a spell, or a trap. Slifer, Ra, and Obelisk were the three most powerful monsters in the original series — the Egyptian God Cards. Later on, in the GX series, these gods were used as an academic division system to organize students into three dorms:

  • Slifer Red — the newcomers, the freshmen, the underdogs
  • Ra Yellow — the middle ground, more developed and serious
  • Obelisk Blue — the top tier, the elite

This mapped perfectly onto my three chunks:

  • Slifer Red → raw ideas, thoughts, blog posts. Fresh, unpolished, straight from the source.
  • Ra Yellow → demos, projects, practical things. Ideas that graduated into something tangible.
  • Obelisk Blue → study notes, resources, knowledge. The refined stuff that came from doing the work.

Beyond the Three Monsters⌗

This doesn’t have to stop at three sections. The Yu-Gi-Oh universe has thousands of cards, and each one carries its own identity. Whenever I have a nameless project, I just throw a random monster name on top to refer to it. Need a new section someday? Pick a card. The naming system scales endlessly, and it never feels forced because the source material is that deep.

Not to mention all the gimmicks that can be reused as the system grows. Trap cards, spell cards, fusion monsters. There’s a metaphor for everything if you want one.

Ship It⌗

That being said, this system is not done, and it is certainly not perfect. But it worked for me, and I decided to stop gatekeeping it. Maybe someone can improve upon it and share it back with us.