Is this thing on?

I just built this site today. This is where I'll be keeping my writing. My goal is to write as much as possible on whatever topics come to mind. My writing is stream of consciousness. It's not pre-meditated or super refined. I think I end up with the best and most authentic content that way. I'm not trying to "come across" as anything, or even prove points. I'm just writing to write. I once had a mentor that said "writing is the best way to see what's in your mind." I always liked that. It has stuck with me.

Anyway,

I used several AI tools to help me figure this all out.

I used ChatGPT as my teacher. I asked it to walk me through step-by-step how to get set up with a development environment, how to download all the tools I needed, etc. Within a few minutes I was up and running with Git, Node, Cursor, and Claude Code.

I spun this website up with a few prompts and some refinement. Only a couple of years ago, this would have taken me days or weeks.

My mind is blown every day not only by how incredible these AI tools are but how incredibly quickly everything is moving. I spoke with a buddy just after I built this site, and he said "And we’re behind. By a good amount, actually."

I asked him to elucidate, and he said he's simply not smart or technical enough to keep up. I mean, this is one of my smartest friends I'm talking about. That struck me. He went on to qualify what he meant by "keep up":

"Both be aware of and be able to use these tools close to optimally. There’s so much happening at a level you would need to study full time if you're not a programmer that it’s gotten beyond me"

On one hand, that's daunting and a bit demoralizing. Should I just give up? Well, no. But it's a simillar feeling to how I feel when I watch John Mayer play guitar. It's at once awe inspiring and depressing - simultaneously makes me want to pick my guitar and practice for 12 straight hours, and also makes me want to just burn it because I'll never be anywhere close to that good. Nevertheless, I stick with it.

And I'm going to stick with this, too. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up building something super cool. Stick around to find out.