This Post Is Nothing (That’s the Point)
Thank you for joining me! Now, what is this all about?
Written by Vincent Buchner | Apr 8, 2025
Last Updated at April 8, 2025
You’ve got a whole bunch of boilerplate code. Widgets and components ready to be used with something. That’s how a good portion of this site started out to begin with too. And I’m going to be even more critical and say, that’s what this post is. It’s nothing really. No new ideas or thoughts. A filler, if you will.
But although it is a placeholder, I still need to put something in it. What is that going to be? AI-generated text, lorem ipsum, the script from the Bee Movie? Not really a challenge, but something to consider. We’ve leaned so heavily on filler content to keep the process going: mock data, scaffolding, templates. So long as it holds the form, it’s doing its job.
But now we’re entering this strange period when the filler itself is starting to look… credible. You can instruct a model to “write a placeholder paragraph for a tech blog,” and it will. Neat. Shiny. No errors. And for the most part, it even sounds like it has a clue what it’s talking about. Perhaps it does.
And what if filler isn’t just a collection of Latin-sounding trash but real, readable paragraphs with structure and argument? Is that still filler if it’s more readable than what you were going to say anyway? That’s the part that I find myself going back to again and again. When does filler material become the real material? If you never fill it in, does it even count? If people do read it, comment on it, learn from it—was it ever a placeholder in the first place?
I don’t know. I just find it to be something to sit with for a moment. Especially for people building personal websites, portfolios, or blogs like this one. We start out with a structure, throw in some cards or a hero space, and suddenly we’re sitting in front of blocks with “Your text here” in them. So we populate them. Sometimes with ideas. Sometimes with whatever gets the build past.
And that isn’t always a negative. I think there’s something freeing about making room to be, even if you aren’t yet ready with something profound to say. The world is full of very polished finished products. Maybe it’s okay to leave a little room for a first draft.
Anyway, this entry is a filler. But at least it’s I’m filling it with my thoughts and words.
For now.
