> Why is the first sentence, just the title repeated?
An artefact of using Ghost defaults; I've moved the excerpt from the main article into the social media cards section to improve readability.
> other articles mixed in with the content
By referencing the other articles which are relevant to points made within the post becomes shorter.
> The article is not that long
The post is meant to be short because it's about a simple convention that I've adopted that has helped me. Maybe others will find value in the idea as well.
There are already links in the paragraph text, and those links are highlighted a different color. I can click on them to see the other article if I’m interested.
I don't believe these are ads, but just previews of the linked content.