Keeping a small server boring
Unattended security updates, a strict firewall, key-only SSH and a backup you have actually restored once. Everything else is optional.
Static sites are still underrated
No database, no admin panel, nothing to patch at 3 a.m. A directory of HTML files served by nginx will outlive most frameworks.
Measuring latency from home
A tiny probe on a Raspberry Pi that pings a handful of endpoints every few minutes tells you more about your ISP than any speed test.