Clarity without the comfort
Honest writing by Nicola Mustone on the messy overlap between humans and tech.
BUT. Honestly Homepage
Author’s Recommendations
Latest Reads
10 Types of Websites and What I’d Use to Build Them
When WordPress is enough, and when a specialized no-code tool actually makes more sense for your site.
How I Built a 3D Print Cost Calculator with a Neural Network
A tiny dense neural network learned resin consumption well enough to replace hours of manual slicing in my 3D printing business.
Touched by AI, Treated Like Slop: The Midas Touch of The Modern Internet
Is the term “AI Slop” used to widely and slapped on anything touched by AI like a cursed Midas Touch?
What is Vibe Coding and How to Do It
Vibe coding turns natural language prompts into working code, shifting programming from memorizing syntax to communicating intent.
Topics
Leadership
Build better teams through clarity and trust.
Programming
Stories and lessons from writing real code.
Web
Thoughts on the tools shaping the internet.
About the BUT. Honestly Project
BUT. Honestly is the long-form notebook on the things that shape how we work.
You’ll read essays about leadership, programming, and the messy overlap between humans and technology. Essays that cut through noise, no buzzwords, no forced optimism, no clickbait productivity hacks. Just slower thinking, grounded experience, and a desire to understand what’s actually useful.
If you read these essays, you’ll find a mix of craft, reflection, and the occasional rant: why teams fail or succeed, why certain tools matter, what writing code teaches us about people, and why clarity is so difficult to achieve in modern work.
This project is intentionally small, a place to think clearly and help others do the same.
Disclaimer. The views and opinions expressed on BUT. Honestly are solely those of the author, Nicola Mustone. They do not represent, reflect, or speak on behalf of any employer, company, organization, or individual. All content is written in a personal capacity.
The Author
Nicola Mustone (aka Nico) is a support lead at WordPress.com, guiding people, projects, and complex systems across the platform.
He has spent years helping teams grow and debugging messy systems, technical and human, and turning complex ideas into clear, usable guidance.
Outside of work, he experiments with machine learning, builds tools, and writes about the parts of the internet that actually matter.
Stay in the Loop
1–4 emails per month. Unsubscribe anytime.