Tech Independence, the Derek Sivers Way (on a Hetzner box)

I recently reread Derek Sivers’ short piece on tech independence and it hit a nerve.

Not in a revolutionary, burn-the-internet way.
More like a quiet, practical nudge: own a little more of your stack than you think you need.

So I decided to try it for real.

This post is a quick guide on how I translated that philosophy into a very concrete setup: Astro + Hetzner + my own server.

No platforms. No dashboards with 400 toggles. Just me and a machine.

What “tech independence” means in practice

For me, it boiled down to four rules:

  1. Own the domain
  2. Own the server
  3. Own the content
  4. Keep everything boring

Boring is underrated. Boring survives.

The stack I ended up with

Nothing fancy. On purpose.

  • Hosting: Hetzner VPS
  • Web server: Nginx
  • Site: Astro (static build)
  • Content: Markdown files
  • Auth systems: none
  • CMS: nope
  • Deploy: rsync + ssh

If I lose my laptop, I still have:

  • my domain
  • my server
  • my content
  • my sanity

That’s independence.

The flow

Here’s the loop I wanted:

  1. Write posts locally on my Mac
  2. Sync to the server
  3. Rebuild Astro
  4. Done

No admin panels. No OAuth rituals. No third-party lock-in.

The final flow looks like this:

Mac → rsync → Server → npm run build → Nginx serves

That’s it. One arrow, one responsibility.

Why Hetzner fits this philosophy

Hetzner feels like the opposite of “platform energy”.

You don’t log into a vibe.
You log into a machine.

You get:

  • a predictable bill
  • a root user
  • and silence

Silence is good. Silence means nothing is trying to upsell you.

What I removed on purpose

At some point I tried setting up a CMS with GitHub OAuth, providers, callbacks, tokens, the whole dance.

It worked. Eventually.

And then I removed it.

Because the moment I needed:

  • a running Node service
  • OAuth secrets
  • redirect URLs
  • error logs

… I was already drifting away from the original idea.

Tech independence is not about building more infra.
It’s about needing less of it.

The real win

The win is not that I can publish.

The win is that I understand every moving part:

  • where files live
  • how they move
  • who serves them
  • how to fix it when it breaks

No black boxes. Just boxes I built.

If you want to copy this setup

Here’s the minimal recipe:

  • Buy a small Hetzner VPS
  • Install Nginx
  • Serve your Astro dist/ folder
  • Sync posts with rsync
  • Rebuild with npm run build

That’s already more independence than 90% of the web.

Final thought

Derek Sivers’ idea isn’t about rejecting modern tools.
It’s about not outsourcing your autonomy by default.

For me, this little Hetzner box became a tiny island of control in a sea of platforms.

And honestly?

It feels good to own a corner of the internet again.