People and Blogs: Nicolas Magand

Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

My name is Nicolas Magand, and I was born in Saint-Étienne, France. At first, I wasn't very interested in the web. I preferred playing video games and watching football on TV. I was studying sustainable development and biology at university. However, once I got my first computer at the age of 20, around 2004 when I was living abroad in Scotland, I discovered a new passion for technology: Twitter, iPods, software, blogs, computers, BlackBerry phones, podcasts, and so on. This hobby eventually led me to a career, and I ended up working in content marketing for companies like Microsoft and Xiaomi. I spent most of the 2010s in Paris, but the pandemic and my current employer (PrestaShop) allowed me in 2020 to work remotely from the beautiful city of Strasbourg, which is where I happily live now.

What's the story behind your blog?

The blog in its current form is ten years old, more or less. I had numerous versions of it before, on (many) different platforms, and other blogs before it. I think I started blogging on Windows Live Spaces, back in 2005, then Blogger, I think. I then switched from writing in French to English (the de facto language of the web, especially in my interest circles), and ended up using Posterous, Tumblr, and Squarespace. I used to share all the things I found interesting online and rant about different topics. Unfortunately, this blogging habit ended up being replaced by Twitter itself, and if you look at my archives, you'll see huge time gaps between some articles: blogging felt redundant at times, and tweets were so much easier to write.

Once I finally managed to post more regularly, I felt that my blog needed its own name and identity, instead of just being "my name dot com." The name The Jolly Teapot is loosely inspired by a comic strip from the excellent Tom Gauld, and I found that it had a nice "early 2000s" vibe.

The past couple of years were mostly focused on working on its barebones design, during which I learned a lot about CSS and HTML. It also served as a way for me to procrastinate any form of writing, which sometimes feels too much like my day job.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

I want to say that three quarters of my blog posts come from reading an article I just read on a topic that I'm familiar with, on which I feel I have something of value to add. I read a column or a blog post, and I want to add something, comment, criticise, rant, approve, etc. These are the cherished moments where I realise that blogging is part of my web habits, and part of me. Without this blogging action, my experience of the web would feel incomplete.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

I love to read and write very early in the morning when it's quiet and dark. I just need my MacBook Air on my lap and a fresh cup of coffee. In the evening my brain is too foggy to write anything interesting. What I like to do is edit a draft on a different day than I wrote it: I find that it improves the process quite a lot, even if it means publishing a day or two later (my posts need a lot of editing).

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

My blog uses Blot as a CMS, which is absolutely fantastic and I couldn't think of something better for me: I just use my text editor app of choice, and everything happens in the background via Dropbox, it's really great. My domain is registered on Cloudflare, where I have set up a CDN for the blog to gain a few precious milliseconds of loading time, which is both unnecessary and essential. I am currently trying to fit AI into my workflow, and so far it can be pretty great for editing, which is something at which I am really bad and hate doing. I'm less convinced by transcription: I thought I could save a lot of time by dictating my thoughts instead of typing them, but I quickly realised that typing is what makes my thoughts work. Without writing my thoughts are just all over the place and the transcripts are barely usable.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

If I were to start today, I would like to think that I'd use the exact same tech stack and the same name. What I would definitely do differently, though, is better define the topics I would write about from the start. I think consistency is key in maintaining a good publishing pace, and I also think readers like to know what they can expect from a specific blogger. If I were to start today, I'd either stick to one, two, or three specific topics and formats. I think these artificial boundaries would have helped me find a voice sooner and publish more posts.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

Between Cloudflare, the domain name, and Blot, I think I spend around 100 euros per year for my blog, which is quite cheap considering the amount of joy it's giving me: after publishing an article I'm happy with, I feel like a million bucks as the Americans would say. I would definitely not consider this a cost, but an investment in myself.

If one has the opportunity to earn some money with their blog, I think it's fantastic, as long as it doesn't ruin the website, or the content itself. If I could make a living blogging, I would. I am happy to support a few bloggers, either through subscriptions, or through one-time contributions.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

I have so many names in mind, but right now I'm thinking of Winnie Lim, always great to read and her blog feels like the essence of blogging, just like Maggie Appleton. Another name I have in mind is Robin Rendle (Robin's P&B interview is available here). Robin's blog has one of the best designs around, even if it changes often. Then there's Daniel Gray's Meanwhile, which isn't really a "blog" but could be. Also, Kev Quirk (Kev's P&B interview is available here) and Bradley Taunt, who surely have something very interesting to say about blogging.

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

If I were still on social media, I would probably share most of the entries from The Onion's American Voices section, which, to me, is the best corner of the web. I also tell all my friends to subscribe to the Dense Discovery newsletter. When I travel to Paris by train once a month for work, I'm always hoping to find a new episode of the North v South design podcast.