kottke.org is ten years old today: There are only a few sites that have been constants to me in my web travels over the past ten years, and only one of them that’s been tirelessly curated, redesigned, reworked and improved by one person for all that time.

Like Jason’s, my life’s taken a lot of turns in that time, but I’ve always come back to his site as a surefire source for creative inspiration and intellectual stimulation. Like many, I felt a kindred spirit with Jason, but I also felt like a better person for reading his site. Jason’s dedication to making the site as smart, interesting, and beautifully designed as possible is always a kick in the pants, and every time I read it — one of the few online routines I have — I can’t help but want to be a little more like Jason. In fact, I’m jealous of him today, as I will have no idea when I hit the ten year mark — unlike Jason, I wasn’t smart enough to keep a record of when I started this blog, and only know it was around the same time in ‘98. Whenever I do hit that mark, I’ll look back on ten years of blogging as a series of half-gestures and half-baked ideas, and not as a corpus of amazing work like Jason has created.

In recent years, I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Jason offline and count him as a friend, and been incredibly happy for him as he’s made the leap to full-time blogging, married the equally amazing Meg, and become a dad. With life as full as it is, and less chances to get together, I’ve appreciated being able to hear his voice daily via his site that much more.

Ten years. That’s a pretty stunning achievement. Congratulations, Jason.

See also merlin’s tribute.