Website profiles · Technology insights · Alternatives

piszek.com

My recent writing View all → Things I’m building and exploring Explore projects → Follow along Essays on connections, useful things, and living deliberately.

Paid content
Visit website
Profile views 0 Outbound visits 0 Normal
Artur Piszek - Artur Piszek Full homepage screenshot

At a glance

Category
Forums & Blogs
Language
English
Paid-content signal
Paid contentObserved
Registered
2003
Hosting
Automattic, IncInferred
HTTPS certificate trusted
PassedObserved
Last updated

Website review

This review may include AI-generated content and is not individually verified. Domain, certificate and other facts come from the observed data on this page.

What is Artur Piszek?

Artur Piszek is a personal website and blog by Artur Piszek, an engineer and psychologist based in Warsaw, Poland, who describes himself as working at WordPress.com on "the future of open web in the age of AI." The site is a working notebook rather than a company or product: it collects his essays, project notes and book reflections, framed around the idea that "most things are connected and treasures are found between the seams."

What you'll find there

  • Essays and technical write-ups on practical topics: using 1Password safely with AI agents, a proposed WordPress AI strategy, a WordPress knowledge API, and syncing a WordPress blog with Obsidian via a plugin called PushMD.
  • Projects he is building, each with its own page: WP Knowledge (a private, permissioned, revisioned store for notes, guidelines and the tools that use them), Oh My Lake! (a WordPress-native atlas of European lakes with open data, reviews and photography), and DoomToll (an iPhone-first tool that turns opening social media into a deliberate choice).
  • Personal context: father of two, remote worker for over a decade, RV owner, drawn to 1900s "gentlemen scientists" and Art Nouveau aesthetics.
  • A subscribe option for email updates on new essays.

Who it suits

Readers interested in the open web, WordPress development and AI tooling will get the most from the technical posts. Others may prefer the shorter personal and book pieces, such as his note on Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger, where he argues the autobiography is the richer read compared with the seven-tools-for-life framing.

A reasonable next step: open the "My recent writing" list and start with whichever of the four featured posts matches your work—if you run a WordPress site, the Obsidian sync piece is the most directly reusable.

What topics does Artur Piszek write about on his blog?

Artur Piszek writes about the practical side of AI and the open web, with WordPress as his main working example. His recent posts cover using 1Password with AI agents, a proposed AI strategy for WordPress, a WordPress knowledge API that turns a site into a personal cloud, and writing in Obsidian that syncs to WordPress. Alongside that he writes shorter book notes, such as on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Be Useful, and describes his own projects: WP Knowledge, the lake atlas Oh My Lake!, and the iPhone app DoomToll. The through-line he states himself is "connections, useful things, and living deliberately"—engineering and psychology applied to everyday tools.

To decide whether it's for you: if you run a WordPress site or work with AI agents, start with the WordPress and 1Password posts; if you want lighter reading on habits and deliberate living, the book notes and project pages are the better entry point.

How can I subscribe to Artur Piszek's essays and updates?

Subscribe using the email form on Artur Piszek's homepage at Artur Piszek. Enter your email address in the "Your email address" field and submit it; the site describes the subscription as "Essays on connections, useful things, and living deliberately." The same page's "Follow" link points to a dedicated subscribe page, which is the more direct route if you want to confirm what you're signing up for before submitting your address.

The subscription is for written posts only. Expect essays on deliberate living and useful tools, plus project updates such as WP Knowledge, Oh My Lake! and DoomToll, and occasional reading notes like the one on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Be Useful. If you mainly want the technical write-ups (1Password with agents, WordPress AI strategy, WordPress as an Obsidian sync target), the email list is the simplest way to hear about them, since the homepage presents recent writing as a feed rather than a separate newsletter archive.

What is WP Knowledge and how does it turn a WordPress site into a personal cloud?

WP Knowledge is a project by Artur Piszek, presented on his personal site as a way to give WordPress "one private, permissioned, revisioned place for guidelines, memories, notes, and the tools that use them" (Artur Piszek). The "personal cloud" idea comes from his post "WP Knowledge: Beyond AI," which describes how the new WordPress knowledge API can turn any WordPress site into a personal cloud.

What it is

  • A knowledge store built on WordPress rather than a separate app.
  • Private by design: content is permissioned, so access is scoped rather than public.
  • Revisioned: notes and guidelines keep a history instead of being overwritten.
  • Intended to hold both reference material (guidelines, memories, notes) and the tools that act on it.

How it becomes a personal cloud

The practical shift is that your WordPress install stops being only a publishing surface and becomes the place you keep working knowledge. Because it is permissioned, you can store material that isn't for public reading; because it is revisioned, you can treat it as a record rather than a scratchpad; and because the knowledge API exposes that material, other tools can query it. The "personal cloud" framing is Piszek's own description of what the API unlocks — it is his characterization of the concept, not a specification of storage limits, sync behavior or pricing.

A concrete scenario

Suppose you keep project guidelines, meeting notes and a running list of decisions on a WordPress site you already run. With a knowledge layer, an assistant or script you author could pull the current guideline and the notes behind it, rather than you pasting context into a chat each time. The revision history lets you see when a guideline changed and why.

Decision criteria

  • Choose this approach if you already run WordPress, want your notes to live beside your publishing, and care about permissions and history.
  • Look elsewhere if you need real-time collaborative editing, offline-first sync across devices, or a mature editor — those are not what the page evidence describes.
  • Adjacent reading: Piszek's "WordPress as Obsidian Sync" post covers writing in Obsidian and pushing Markdown to WordPress via a plugin, which suits people who want plain files locally but still want WordPress as the system of record.

Next step: read the "WP Knowledge: Beyond AI" post for the API details, then decide whether the permissioned-plus-revisioned model actually matches how you keep notes today.

How does the PushMD plugin let me write WordPress posts in Obsidian?

The PushMD plugin described on Artur Piszek works by keeping your WordPress content as plain Markdown files in a local folder, which Obsidian can open directly. You git clone your blog content to your machine, edit or write posts in Obsidian as ordinary .md files, and then "push" those files back so they are written into the WordPress database. The page frames this as a local-first loop: Obsidian handles the writing, WordPress stays the publishing target.

What the workflow looks like in practice

  • Setup once: clone the blog content repository locally, then point Obsidian at that folder as a vault (or part of one).
  • Write normally: drafts and edits are just Markdown files, so you get Obsidian's linking, search and offline editing.
  • Push to publish: a push step syncs the changed files into WordPress, rather than copying and pasting through the block editor.

Who this suits, and the trade-offs

This appeals to people who already live in Obsidian and dislike drafting inside WordPress—for example, a blogger who wants backlinks and local version history while still publishing on WordPress. The trade-off is that you are managing a repository and a sync step, and Markdown round-tripping can be imperfect if your posts rely on WordPress-specific blocks or plugins. Before adopting it, check whether your existing posts survive the round trip and whether the push is one-way or two-way, since that determines how safe it is to edit on either side.

What is DoomToll and how does it help reduce reflexive social media use?

DoomToll is an iPhone-first tool that turns opening social media into a deliberate choice rather than an automatic reflex. That description comes from the site's own project listing on Artur Piszek, where it sits alongside his other experiments in useful, deliberate living.

How the concept works

The idea is a "digital tollbooth": a small moment of friction placed in front of an app you'd otherwise open without thinking. Instead of removing social media entirely, it interrupts the reflex at the point where it usually happens. For someone who reaches for their phone during a queue or a lull in conversation, that pause is the whole intervention — it converts an unconscious tap into a decision you actually make.

What to expect, realistically

  • It targets the habit loop, not the content. The site frames DoomToll around the act of opening, so the benefit is fewer mindless launches rather than less time once you're inside.
  • iPhone-first means the design assumes iOS. If you use Android or mostly browse on a laptop, this isn't the shape of tool you're looking for.
  • Friction cuts both ways. A tollbooth you can dismiss in a second will fade; one that's too heavy becomes something you route around. The useful question when trying it is whether the pause still registers after a week.

A concrete way to judge it: pick one app that accounts for most of your reflexive opens, run DoomToll on that app only for seven days, and note how often you open it and then close it within seconds. That number — not total screen time — tells you whether the tollbooth is doing its job. If you want the author's fuller reasoning, his essays on deliberate living are collected on the same site.

Related questions

More questions →
What piszek.com Is and Who Artur Piszek Is

piszek.com is the personal website of Artur Piszek, an engineer and psychologist who works at WordPress.com. He uses the site to publish essays and to showcase projects he is building, with writing centered on “connections, useful things, and living deliberately.” You can follow updates by email through the subscribe form on the site.

Who Artur Piszek says he is

The site’s introduction is written in the first person. In it, Piszek describes himself as an “Engineer · Psychologist · Explorer.” He says he works at WordPress.com, “trying to weave the future of open web in the age of AI.” He cites 1900s gentlemen scientists and Art Nouveau aesthetics as inspirations, lives in Warsaw, Poland, and has worked remotely for 12 years. He also mentions being a father of two, a husband, and an RV owner.

These are self-descriptions from the site, not independently verified credentials. Treat them as the author’s framing of his own background.

What you’ll find on the site

The homepage is organized into three main areas:

  • Recent writing — essays and posts, each with a short summary and a “Read →” link.
  • Things I’m building and exploring — project pages with an “Explore →” link for each.
  • A subscribe form — an email field and a Subscribe button under the line “Follow along.”

Recent writing topics

The posts listed on the homepage give a clear picture of the site’s range:

Post What it covers
1password for free range agents A setup for using 1Password with AI agents, framed as an alternative to storing passwords in a plain file
WordPress AI strategy – Artur’s Version His vision for developing AI features in WordPress
WP Knowledge: Beyond AI The WordPress knowledge API and how it can turn a WordPress site into a “Personal Cloud”
WordPress as Obsidian Sync Writing posts in Obsidian and pushing plain Markdown files to a WordPress database via the PushMD plugin
Book: Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger A note on Schwarzenegger’s seven tools for life and his autobiography

The through-line is practical, hands-on writing about WordPress, AI tooling, and personal workflows, mixed with occasional book notes.

Projects featured on the site

  • WP Knowledge — described as “one private, permissioned, revisioned place for guidelines, memories, notes, and the tools that use them” within WordPress.
  • Oh My Lake! — a WordPress-native atlas of 109,541 European lakes, combining open data with local evidence, personal reviews, and photography.
  • DoomToll — an iPhone-first “digital tollbooth” that turns opening social media from an automatic reflex into a conscious choice.

Who the site is for

piszek.com is most useful if you:

  • work with WordPress and want to read about AI features and knowledge APIs from someone who works at WordPress.com;
  • are interested in personal knowledge management and writing workflows, such as syncing Obsidian with WordPress;
  • want to follow an individual builder’s essays rather than a news publication.

It is a personal blog, not a product documentation site or a news outlet. Posts reflect one person’s views and experiments, so verify technical steps against current official documentation before adopting them.

How to follow along

The homepage offers an email subscription: enter your address in the “Your email address” field and select Subscribe. The site also links to a dedicated subscribe page at piszek.com/subscribe/ labeled “Follow.” The site does not state how often emails are sent or what they contain beyond updates on new writing, so expect occasional posts rather than a fixed schedule.

If you prefer not to subscribe, the “View all →” link next to “My recent writing” leads to the full archive, and each project has its own page reachable from the homepage.

How to Follow or Subscribe to Artur Piszek's Updates

To follow Artur Piszek's updates, use the email subscribe form on piszek.com: enter your email address in the field at the bottom of the page and submit it. The site also has a "Follow" link that points to its subscribe page at piszek.com/subscribe/. Subscribing gets you his essays on connections, useful things, and living deliberately.

What you're signing up for

The site describes the subscription as "Essays on connections, useful things, and living deliberately." That matches the broader focus of his writing, which the homepage frames around connections, useful things, and deliberate living.

Recent posts shown on the homepage give a sense of the range:

  • 1password for free range agents — a setup for using 1Password with agents
  • WordPress AI strategy – Artur's Version — his vision for AI features in WordPress
  • WP Knowledge: Beyond AI — what the WordPress knowledge API unlocks
  • WordPress as Obsidian Sync — writing in Obsidian and pushing content to a WordPress database via the PushMD plugin
  • Book: Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger — a reading note

Ways to follow

Method Where What you do
Email subscription Email field at the bottom of the homepage Enter your email address and submit
Subscribe page piszek.com/subscribe/ (linked as "Follow") Open the page and complete the subscription there
Browse without subscribing "View all →" link under "My recent writing" Read recent posts directly on the site

Who's behind it

Artur Piszek describes himself as an engineer, psychologist, and explorer. He works at WordPress.com, lives in Warsaw, Poland, and has worked remotely for 12 years. He also lists projects he's building, including WP Knowledge, Oh My Lake! (an atlas of 109,541 European lakes), and DoomToll (an iPhone-first digital tollbooth for social media).

Practical notes

  • The homepage shows only an email field and a "Follow" link; no other subscription channels (RSS, social, newsletter platform) are listed in the page content.
  • No pricing or login requirements are stated for subscribing, so treat the email form as the documented path and check the subscribe page for any additional details.
  • If you only want to sample the writing first, the "View all →" link under "My recent writing" takes you to the full post list without any signup.
What Kind of Writing and Topics You’ll Find on Artur Piszek’s Website

piszek.com is a personal site for essays and project notes by Artur Piszek, an engineer and psychologist who works at WordPress.com. The writing centers on AI, WordPress, the open web, and personal knowledge management, with occasional book reflections. You can read recent posts directly on the homepage and subscribe by email via the site’s subscribe page.

Main themes

The site describes itself as “essays on connections, useful things, and living deliberately.” In practice, the recent writing clusters around a few recurring interests:

  • AI and agents — practical setups for using AI tools, including password management for “free range agents.”
  • WordPress and the open web — strategy for AI features in WordPress and what the new WordPress knowledge API enables.
  • Personal knowledge management — using WordPress as a sync layer for Obsidian and writing in plain Markdown.
  • Books and reflection — short notes on books such as Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Recent posts at a glance

Post Topic
1password for free range agents A safer alternative to storing passwords in a CSV when working with AI agents
WordPress AI strategy – Artur’s Version A vision for developing AI features in WordPress
WP Knowledge: Beyond AI How the WordPress knowledge API can turn a site into a personal cloud
WordPress as Obsidian Sync Setting up local Markdown writing in Obsidian that pushes to a WordPress database
Book: Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger A reading note on Arnold’s seven tools for life and his autobiography

Projects alongside the writing

The site also links to things Piszek is building:

  • WP Knowledge — a private, permissioned, revisioned place in WordPress for guidelines, memories, notes, and the tools that use them.
  • Oh My Lake! — a WordPress-native atlas of 109,541 European lakes combining open data, local evidence, reviews, and photography.
  • DoomToll — an iPhone-first “digital tollbooth” that turns opening social media from a reflex into a conscious choice.

Who it’s for

This site suits readers interested in how AI and the open web intersect with WordPress, people who want practical notes on tools like Obsidian and 1Password, and anyone who enjoys short, idea-driven essays about connections and deliberate living. If you’re looking for long-form tutorials or news coverage, the posts are closer to working notes and personal essays than to a publication.

How Artur Piszek Uses Obsidian to Write for WordPress

Artur Piszek writes his WordPress posts directly in Obsidian, using a plugin called PushMD. The setup works like this: PushMD lets him git clone his blog content to his local machine as plain Markdown files, he edits those .md files in Obsidian, and when he pushes, the content is written into the WordPress database. Piszek describes this in his post "WordPress as Obsidian Sync" and says the post itself was written this way, with a setup guide included for anyone who wants to replicate it.

The three-part workflow

The process separates writing from publishing, with each tool doing one job:

1. Local copy via git clone

PushMD exposes the blog's content as a Git repository. Cloning it gives you a local folder of Markdown files — one per post, in plain .md format. This is the step that removes the need to draft inside the WordPress editor.

2. Editing in Obsidian

Because Obsidian works natively with plain .md files, the cloned folder can be opened as a vault and edited like any other note. You get Obsidian's linking, search, and editing environment while the files remain ordinary Markdown on disk.

3. Push to WordPress

When you push, the changes are written to the WordPress database. Piszek's summary is that "everything gets written to a WordPress database on push" — so WordPress remains the system of record even though the writing happened elsewhere.

What you need before starting

  • A WordPress site where you can install the PushMD plugin.
  • Git installed locally, and comfort with basic clone / commit / push commands.
  • Obsidian installed, if you want the same editing experience Piszek uses (the files are plain Markdown, so other editors would also open them).

Piszek's post states that a full setup walkthrough is included; the exact menu locations and configuration fields are best taken from that guide rather than assumed.

How to verify it worked

After your first push, check two things: that the post appears in WordPress with your intended content, and that a subsequent git clone (or pull) returns the same Markdown you wrote. If both hold, the round trip between Obsidian and the WordPress database is functioning.

Common sticking points

  • Git familiarity is the real prerequisite. The workflow is Git-centric; if cloning and pushing are unfamiliar, that is the part to learn first.
  • Markdown fidelity. Since content lives as .md files, expect to confirm how your formatting renders once it lands in WordPress.
  • Plugin dependency. The sync depends on PushMD being installed and working on the WordPress side.

Is this approach for you?

This setup suits writers who already keep notes in Obsidian, want their posts as portable plain-text files under version control, and are comfortable with Git. It is a poorer fit if you prefer drafting in the WordPress block editor, are not using Git, or cannot install the plugin on your site. For those cases, WordPress's own editor remains the simpler path.

What projects is Artur Piszek building and exploring?

Artur Piszek lists three active projects on piszek.com: WP Knowledge, Oh My Lake!, and DoomToll. Each is presented as a work in progress with its own project page, so the site is the place to go for current details rather than a finished product catalog. The projects share a common thread with his writing—useful, deliberately built tools that connect ideas and data.

The three projects at a glance

Project What it is Platform / form
WP Knowledge A private, permissioned, revisioned place in WordPress for guidelines, memories, notes, and the tools that use them WordPress
Oh My Lake! A WordPress-native atlas of 109,541 European lakes, combining open data with local evidence, personal reviews, and photography WordPress
DoomToll An iPhone-first digital tollbooth that turns opening social media from an automatic reflex into a conscious choice iPhone app

WP Knowledge

WP Knowledge is described as giving WordPress "one private, permissioned, revisioned place for guidelines, memories, notes, and the tools that use them." In other words, it is a knowledge and memory layer for WordPress rather than a public publishing feature: access is controlled, changes are tracked, and other tools can build on the stored material. A related essay, "WP Knowledge: Beyond AI," frames the new WordPress knowledge API as something that "can turn any WordPress into a Personal Cloud." If you want to understand the thinking behind the project, that post is the natural starting point.

Oh My Lake!

Oh My Lake! is a WordPress-native atlas covering 109,541 European lakes. It combines open data with "useful local evidence, personal reviews, and photography"—so it is part reference map, part community-contributed guide. The scale (over a hundred thousand lakes) suggests the value lies in structured open data plus the human layer on top. For anyone curious about European lakes or about how WordPress can host a large data-driven atlas, the project page is the entry point.

DoomToll

DoomToll is an iPhone-first "digital tollbooth." Its purpose is behavioral: opening social media stops being an automatic reflex and becomes a conscious choice. The metaphor is deliberate—you pay a small toll of friction or intention before entering. It is the most personal-scale of the three projects, aimed at individual habits rather than publishing infrastructure.

How to explore further

The site's "Things I'm building and exploring" section links each project to its own "Explore →" page, and a separate "Explore projects →" link collects them. Since these are ongoing efforts, details such as features and availability are best checked on those pages rather than assumed from the summaries above. The same section also points to his recent writing, where project-adjacent essays appear—for example, the WordPress AI strategy post and the Obsidian-sync workflow post—which give context on how these tools fit into his broader work at WordPress.com on "the future of open web in the age of AI."

If your interest is a specific project, start with its project page; if your interest is the ideas behind them, the essays under "My recent writing" are the better route.

Website Overview

Identifiable technologies and additional version or configuration signals make the service easier to fingerprint, which may help targeted scanners narrow their checks. An established domain and managed infrastructure suggest continuity of operations and may support dependable delivery, although neither guarantees service quality.

Domain and Registration

Registered in 2003, this domain has about 23 years of history. That suggests continuity, although ownership and purpose may have changed. Transfer-protection status is present, helping reduce the risk of unauthorized domain transfers. The domain uses the common .com extension, which is not an independent safety signal.

DNS and Email

Nameservers are provided by wordpress.com, indicating managed DNS hosting. MX records point to the wordpress.com email service. No CNAME was found; the observed records resolve directly to addresses. SPF and DMARC are configured. DKIM status is unknown. TXT records include verification markers for Google. Such markers may also remain after a service stops being used.

TLS and Certificates

The public key uses EC with 256 bits. The server supplied a complete certificate chain. No organization name is present in the certificate; the available fields are consistent with domain validation. The certificate was issued within the Google Trust Services cloud or CDN ecosystem. The certificate's total validity is about 89 days, consistent with a short renewal cycle.

HTTP and Browser Security

The response lacks these common security headers: CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy, clickjacking protection. No X-Powered-By header was found, reducing one common source of backend fingerprinting information. No obvious internal addresses or debug information were found in the headers. The Server header identifies nginx without an exact version. No explicit CDN or WAF marker was found in the response headers.

Technology Stack Analysis

The public page identifies Site Kit by Google 1.187.0, WordPress, nginx, with exact versions exposed for 1 technologies. These details can narrow vulnerability checks, although exposure alone is not a vulnerability.

Search and Social Sharing

No homepage meta description was detected, leaving snippet selection more dependent on page text. The Generator tag identifies Site Kit by Google 1.187.0, making the publishing system easier to fingerprint. Twitter Card metadata is configured. JSON-LD includes Organization data, helping describe the organization as an entity. The title has 27 characters, within a common display range.

Hosting and Email

DNSwordpress.com
HostingAutomattic, Inc
Emailwordpress.com
Approximate IP geolocation (inferred; a CDN or proxy may differ from the origin server) United States flagSan Francisco, California, United States Inferred 192.0.78.24

Registration details

RDAP / WHOIS

RegistrarAutomattic Inc.
Registered2003-01-06
Expires2031-01-06
Domain statusclient transfer prohibited
Nameserversns1.wordpress.com、ns2.wordpress.com、ns3.wordpress.com
DNSSECunsigned

DNS records

DNS

TypeNameValueTTLPriority
Apiszek.com192.0.78.24300—
Apiszek.com192.0.78.25300—
MXpiszek.comsmtp-fwd.wordpress.com144000
NSpiszek.comns1.wordpress.com86400—
NSpiszek.comns2.wordpress.com86400—
NSpiszek.comns3.wordpress.com86400—
TXTpiszek.comgoogle-site-verification=iPatz7cTVqChOKbY8Kzkbs10hjNyC_iI8zmDR8NFEqw3600—
TXTpiszek.comv=spf1 include:_spf.mlsend.com a mx include:_spf.wpcloud.com ~all3600—
DMARC_dmarc.piszek.comv=DMARC1;p=none;3600—

TLS and certificates

TLS / SSL

AssessmentNormal configuration
Supported protocolsTLSv1.2、TLSv1.3
Negotiated protocolTLSv1.3
Certificate subjecttls.automattic.com
IssuerGoogle Trust Services
Valid until2026-11-22T00:58 · Remaining when checked: 30 days
Verification detailsCertificate trust: Passed · Hostname match: Passed

HTTP response headers

HTTP

HeaderValue
content-typetext/html; charset=UTF-8
cache-controlmax-age=160, must-revalidate
servernginx
strict-transport-securitymax-age=31536000

Identified technologies

Site Kit by Google 1.187.0WordPressnginx

Pages, Search and Sharing

Meta descriptionNot detected
Canonical URLhttps://piszek.com/
LanguageEnglish (default)
Twitter Cardsummary_large_image
All bots 0 allowed · 0 disallowed

User reviews (0)

  • No reviews yet.