(11/14/2025)
this has been very fun so far. i always have a lot of fun designing stuff so i am not surprised it has been fun! i was sort of familiar with basic html before this (from my tumblr and wiki editing days) but i've already learned quite more than i did before.
but full disclosure, i used chatgpt to help me make my home page. i know, boooo, whats the fun in that!? well, i'm finding there's quite a lot of pros and cons to using AI as a learning tool so far. i usually use chatgpt to help with stuff i already know how to do but don't want to (write bullshit cover letters for job apps), and now i'm using it for stuff i don't know how to do (code). i am aware of the cognitive offloading phenomenon with using chatgpt to write - to an extent i've experienced this already - but using AI to learn? is it an oxymoron?
The Pros: i've always felt intimidated by tech stuff. i can't count the number of times i've dismissed tackling a project early on cuz i'm "not a tech person". using AI, i tell it i have an idea and it spits out something that i can work with, even if it's not perfect. rather than a blank slate, i've got a blob of clay to work with now. i like that.
The Cons: it is kinda hard to gauge how much i am learning. and the goal of this project is to learn the basics of web dev and if i like it enough to learn more. two days in, i think i've got the basics down - i dont need to ask AI to help me make a page like this, for instance. i undertsand the purpose of a .css file now and what should go into it, which i didn't before, but i did not write most of the code inside my .css. likewise with javascript - two days ago i couldn't tell you what javascript was. i understand its purpose now, and my main page has a javascript part to it, but i didn't code it!
part of me says, you gotta learn this the old-fashioned way to really understand it and retain the knowledge. and part of me just wants this up and running asap. so i am trying to use a mix of oldschool/newschool in my website journey. something to keep in mind i guess.