Go ahead and find a static site generator you want to learn. You can probably find one written in a language that you know if that makes you more comfortable.
staticgen.com has a handy list of static site generators with which languages they use.
A static site generator is essentially a piece of software that takes some content (usually in the form of markdown, images, and other resources) applies it to a template and spits out all the html, css, and js files for your site.
Templates are generally a mash-up of html, css and placeholder stuff. You can start from scratch with your own templates or work from templates created by others. But this is a quick and effective way to get off the ground creating a website on par with something you could create with something like Squarespace, for a lot less money ( sorry Linus I hope this doesn't get you in trouble with your advertisers )
GitLab offers Free static site hosting for most common static site generators. The way this works is: you set up all the content and templates on your computer, you upload it to GitLab using Git, GitLab generates the site using the generator you select and puts it up.