Why I Write Blogs in Markdown on GitHub (Instead of Substack or LinkedIn)

People often ask why I write my blog posts in Markdown on GitHub instead of using Substack, LinkedIn, or a polished website builder.

The short answer:
I’m optimizing for hands-on fluency, not reach.

The longer answer is about fundamentals, automation, and staying close to the tools that actually shape how technology gets built.

The Temptation of Platforms

Substack, LinkedIn, Medium, and no-code site builders are excellent tools.

They offer:

• Distribution
• Analytics
• Templates
• Zero setup

If your primary goal is audience growth, they’re often the right choice.

But they abstract away something I care deeply about:

How systems actually work.

Markdown + GitHub Is the Smallest Honest Unit

Writing in Markdown on GitHub forces me to interact with:

• File systems
• Naming conventions
• Version control
• CI/CD workflows
• Deployment automation

There’s no “Publish” button.

There’s only: edit → commit → push → observe

That loop mirrors real engineering work far better than any platform UI.

Getting My Hands Dirty Is the Point

As a technologist, I don’t want my writing environment to be frictionless. I want it to be representative.

Every post touches:

• Git fundamentals
• Automation pipelines
• Configuration files
• Build logs

These are the same surfaces where real systems fail—or succeed.

Choosing GitHub keeps my muscle memory honest.

Back to Basics Is a Strategic Choice

There’s a quiet cost to living only in polished tools: you lose your sense of the underlying machinery.

Markdown on GitHub is:

• Portable
• Vendor-neutral
• Diffable
• Automatable
• Future-proof

If GitHub disappeared tomorrow, I’d still have:

• Plain text files
• Full history
• A deployable static site

That resilience matters more to me than convenience.

AI and Automation Change the Equation

As AI becomes more capable, the people who benefit most won’t be the ones clicking buttons.

They’ll be the ones who understand:

• Inputs and outputs
• Source control
• Pipelines
• Deterministic workflows

Markdown + GitHub is an ideal substrate for AI:

• Easy for models to read and generate
• Easy to validate with diffs
• Easy to automate end-to-end

This blog is already “AI-ready” without special tooling.

Writing Where Automation Lives

When I write on GitHub:

• My content lives next to code
• Automation is a first-class citizen
• Publishing is reproducible

That means I can:

• Auto-generate drafts
• Validate structure
• Trigger workflows
• Refactor content like software

None of that fits naturally inside a walled platform.

This Isn’t Anti-Platform. It’s Pro-Fundamentals.

I still use LinkedIn. I still read Substack.

But my source of truth lives in Markdown.

Platforms can amplify. GitHub helps me think.

And in a world moving faster every year, thinking clearly about systems is a competitive advantage.

Why This Matters for Technologists

If you work in:

• Engineering
• DevOps
• Security
• Enablement
• Platform teams

Your writing environment is also your learning environment.

Mine reminds me daily:

Technology rewards those who stay close to the primitives.

So I write where the primitives live.

On GitHub. In Markdown. With automation watching.