DRY Beyond Code: Content as Data DRY Beyond Code: Content as Data | Zhiwei Li

DRY Beyond Code: Content as Data | Generated by AI

Home 2026.05

Exactly. You’ve hit on a real insight — DRY isn’t just for code. Content has duplication patterns too, and the same mindset applies:

  • Hyperlinks — what we just did. One canonical location, everywhere else points to it. Simplest form of content “variable.”

  • Jekyll _data files — define a YAML/JSON data structure once, then reference it in any page via site.data.whatever. If your resume progress was in _data/education.yml, both pages could render from it without copying.

  • Jekyll {% include %} — a shared snippet. Write the progress bullets once in _includes/associate-degree-progress.md, then {% include ... %} it into both pages. Truly like a function call for content.

  • Transclusion — some systems let you embed a section of one page inside another at render time. Obsidian does this natively. For Jekyll you’d need a plugin like jekyll-crosspost.

The deeper idea: text is data. Once you see that, you stop copy-pasting and start asking “where does this live, and who references it?” — same instinct you’d have in code.

Your resume and progress post are a perfect case. The next level would be pulling the exam data into _data/ and having both pages generate their display from that single source. Want to go there?

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