Privacy

A few months ago, I fell into a rabbit hole. Everywhere I looked, people were talking about self-hosting: replacing Google Photos, Drive, Dropbox, Netflix, Spotify - everything - with a private server at home. The slogans were bold: “Digital sovereignty.” “Your data, your rules.” “Big Tech is evil.” And somewhere inside me, a voice whispered: Maybe I should do it too. Because the idea is seductive: a personal cloud, fully under my control, performance-optimized, tuned exactly the way I want it. ...

Latency isn’t just a performance metric. It’s a posture. A sub-100ms response says, “I trust you.” A spinning loader says, “Hold on, we’re asking permission.” And when you’re jotting a note, editing a task, or flipping a toggle on a flaky train ride, that trust, or lack of it, quietly shapes how you feel about the app, and about yourself. That’s why I’ve started thinking of local-first not as a feature, but as a form of kindness. ...