In 2012, at the beginning of my software engineering career, I built my first blog using Ruby on Rails. It was a simple app—CRUD-based, backed by a SQLite database, with some basic styling. Fast forward 13 years and I found myself with some "free time" and I decided to rebuild it, but this time using Django. This decision was less about switching frameworks and more about applying everything I’ve learned in the past decade to build a more modern, scalable, and maintainable blog, while exercising some front-end muscles I hadn't used in a while.

Why Django?

After years of working with Python, I had yet to have an opportunity to work with Django and this seemed like a good opportunity to get some hands-on learning. It has built-in features that make development fast and scalable, including an admin panel, authentication system, and robust ORM. Compared to Rails, Django’s philosophy of “explicit is better than implicit” also aligns better with how I write and structure applications today.

Key Features That Made Django a Good Fit:

- "batteries included": comes with authentication, admin, forms, and security features out of the box
- Python ecosystem: taps into Python's familiar ecosystem, making it easier to integrate with data science, ML, and API tools down the road if I find myself with more "free time"
- ORM with strong migrations: Django’s ORM provides powerful database migrations, making schema changes easier
- scalability and maintainability: Django apps are structured for long-term maintainability, unlike many Rails projects that can become overly reliant on magic

Lessons Learned

Explicit Configuration is Key

Rails often relies on convention, but Django requires explicit configuration, especially for settings like database connections, static files, and caching. This results in fewer surprises in production.

Containerization Would Have Helped

Instead of using Heroku buildpacks, a Dockerized setup could have made local/production parity even better. I started down this path, but went with the standard deployment steps when I found myself spending more time troubleshooting this than it took to build the entire blog itself (I hope to revisit this some other time).

Django Admin is a Time Saver

Django’s built-in admin panel saved me time by providing an instant CMS-like interface for managing posts.

Deployment Can Be Simple with the Right Setup

With Heroku, getting an app live was as simple as:
```sh
git push heroku main
```
However, optimizations like Redis caching, worker tuning, and environment variable management are still on my TODO list.

Final Thoughts

Thirteen years in tech has taught me a lot—about coding, problem-solving, and even life. If I could go back and give my younger self some advice, it would be:

1. Don’t Fear Change—Embrace It

Tech evolves. Rails felt cutting-edge in 2012; now, there are many lightweight frameworks that are quick to implement. The ability to adapt is more important than any single language or framework.

2. Simple Solutions are Often the Best

The best code is the simplest that gets the job done. Over-engineering can be a trap—don't build microservice architecture when a monolith suffices.

3. Invest in Understanding the Fundamentals

Frameworks come and go, but core principles and system design will always be essential. Master these while trying not to get bogged down in the details and you'll always be valuable in any tech stack.

4. Your First Version Won’t Be Perfect—Ship It Anyway

Perfectionism can kill momentum. It’s better to ship something imperfect and iterate than to never launch at all. (Psst! This blog is far from perfect.)

What's Next?

Rebuilding my blog has been a rewarding exercise in reflecting on my growth as a developer. It reminded me why I love building software in the first place.

For anyone starting a Django project, I hope this guide helps you avoid common pitfalls and build with confidence. And if you’re ever debating whether to revisit an old project—do it. You might be surprised at how much you’ve grown.