A Small Go Server for Static Previews

We wanted a preview server that anyone in the studio could run without installing anything. Go made that easy.

Most of the improvement in a draft comes from cutting. We aim to remove a fifth of every piece on the second pass, and the reader never misses it.

We schedule unstructured time on purpose. Some of our best ideas started as an afternoon with no plan and a stack of old magazines.

package main

import (
	"log"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	fs := http.FileServer(http.Dir("./public"))
	http.Handle("/", http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
		w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "public, max-age=60")
		fs.ServeHTTP(w, r)
	}))
	log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(":8000", nil))
}

We keep a running document of things that went wrong on past projects. It is not a list of failures so much as a list of warnings, and we read it before every kickoff.

Constraints are underrated. A fixed word count, a single typeface, or a two-colour palette forces decisions that an open brief lets you postpone forever.

Every studio accumulates habits it never chose. Once a year we list them and ask whether each one still earns its place.