/ About and Now

About this Website

This website consists of Blogs at ssp.sh/blog/*, and a large Second Brain at ssp.sh/brain/* including 1000+ interlinked notes. A huge chunk of it is the Data Engineering Vault with dedicated notes to data engineering. But there are just as many notes on Writing, Obsidian, Deep Life, Digital Gardening and many others (check the main page of the brain).

The Blog specifically focuses on genuine news about the open-source data ecosystem. Topics covered mostly are: data engineering, open source, Python, ETL. But as well as with the second brain, you’ll find also other passions from me about writing, PKM, productivity, Neovim and many others.

The unique part is, that the blogs is connected with the second brain in an interactive graph. So on each Blog, or Second Brain note, you’ll see the relation to connected articles and vice versa. Recently, I also interconnected it to my book chapters and vice versa from the book to my second brain. You’ll find the idea at Future of Blogging and its backlinks, or at Why I Still Blog.

👨‍💻 About Me, Simon Späti

This is my personal site, Simon Späti, a data engineer, technical writer, and lifelong learner. I’m a dad and family person with over 20 years of experience in Data Engineering who pivoted into Technical Writing. My passion is using technology and writing to make a positive impact.

I’m the author of this Blog, a top-ranked Data Engineering blog, and I’m currently writing a living book on Patterns of Data Engineering. My work has been featured in publications like Towards Data Science and freeCodeCamp, and I’ve been recognized as a top writer on Quora and Databand.

One of my key contributions is the «Data Engineering Vault», a connected knowledge hub that revolutionizes how people learn about Data Engineering. I’m also passionate about Personal Knowledge Management, which led me to create my Public Second Brain.

I’m always excited to learn about new open-source technologies and share what I learn. If you’re interested in Data Engineering, Technical Writing, Neovim, or innovative learning approaches, I’d love to connect. For more about my journey and current projects, check out my Pathless Path, my Gigs (Podcasts, Videos), CV, GitHub, or some books I’ve recently read.

Thanks for stopping by.

📖 What I’m doing now

(This is a Now Page, and if a website, you should create one, too.)

I’ve been thinking about my book again and how to unblock it. It’s gone quite stale, mostly because my day job also involves writing, and because as long as it’s unfinished, it doesn’t pay the bills. The real blocker is that I don’t have a clear end-structure in mind (intentional, to keep my own interest alive, but it makes the book feel endless). If you’ve written a book before, or help authors get unstuck, I’d love to talk — just reach out to me. I could also use 1-2 more chapter sponsors so I can justify spending time on it; check sponsoring if that’s you.

Otherwise I was quite productive on the website side. I added a Visual Changelog so you can follow along with the small design tweaks I keep making, with before/after screenshots: Callouts now show as marginal notes, quotes and inline callouts got an upgrade, and recent notes on the second brain now shows a pill for new vs. updated, with word-diff counts you can filter by.

RSS feeds for both the blog and the brain now ship full content instead of just the intro. I also pushed page speed to 100 on mobile and desktop across most pages as traffic keeps growing (casually serving 286 GB/month now), so I wanted a better out-of-the-box experience for it.

I also added a personal Memories page with photos from Flickr and Instagram (check the #SwitzerlandIsFake tag if you’re into photography).

Started a new show, “Show Your Workflow,” about how people come up with writing and ideas, heavily inspired by folks like David Perell and Austin Kleon. First guest was Benn Stancil: If You Always Enjoy It, You’re Not Pushing It Hard Enough. More guest will come out gradually.

And I turned 40 🎉. Some photos and thoughts here if you’re curious.

This update was on September 17th, 2026.

A Brief History about this Website (ssp.sh)

This Website has existed since 2004. So here’s the history and evolution it went through since then:

• 2004: Registered sspaeti.com, my first endeavor into web development with HTML, CSS, PHP
• 2005-2014: Ran a local forum and party guide (this was before FB :)
• 2015: Published my first data-related blog post
• 2016-2018: Regular blogging on Business Intelligence and data topics
• 2019: Focus on Open-Source Data Engineering
• 2021: Migrated from WordPress to GoHugo, fully powered by Markdown
• 2022: Started my Second Brain and sharing my notes publicly.
• 2023: Registered the domain ssp.sh
• 2024: Launched as a freelance Technical Author & Data Engineer
• 2025: Founded the company SSP Data GmbH

For two decades, I’ve been exploring the world of data and technology. What started as a hobby has grown into a passion for sharing knowledge about open-source data engineering. Through this blog, I aim to craft valuable & educational content for data engineers, BI specialists, and anyone eager to learn about data.

2004201720232026 Before Hugo Website Timeline 2004 → 2026 The site has existed since 2004. See how it looked through the PHP, forum and WordPress years, as a filmstrip of real Wayback Machine captures. Open the filmstrip →

💼 Professional Services

In addition to sharing my knowledge through this blog and my free resources, I also offer professional services to help businesses and individuals in the data engineering field, primarily technical blog writing and book sponsorships. Check Out My Services and My Craft for Data Engineering Writing for more details.