Ship the Damn Thing

This is about working with AI, the heartburn I feel about using it, and why I use it anyway. I don't know that how I feel is completely "right," I'm sure it's not morally sound, but I think it's a way that a lot of other developers like me are probably feeling now too.

I've had this site up & running for quite a while now. Probably since about October 2024, when the first commit was (I don't know when I actually put it on a server with a domain though... knowing me it could have been months later). I made it because I thought Astro seemed like an interesting tech stack for a personal site, because I wanted to blog & write more, and because I just wanted some presence on the internet after being off most social media for quite a while. I read a lot of blogs through RSS, I love stumbling on to folks sites and seeing what they think, and following people organically, no algorithm.

So, great! I've got my site, and now I can write, and make my own little space on the web! Except... the template I used is nice, but I want to make some tweaks. And while I love markdown, authoring my posts in the repo isn't my favorite, and copying from Obsidian can be clunky. And it'd be nice to be able to just post little thoughts without all the fanfare of a full post. And, and, and...

So many small little nitpicks about how I wanted the site to be stopped me from actually using it for what I wanted. The site languished, open to the web, but seldom visited by anyone but myself, where I'd go, look, and regret how little I'd written.

Predictably, this is where AI comes in. I've been using Claude Code for work probably since right around when it came out. It's a no-brainer for software engineers now-a-days, for better or worse. But I never used it on my own site, because "damnit, it's mine" (I say about an Astro template site with the barest of tweaks). But earlier this week I decided to change my tune, let AI handle some of the finicky tweaks, and just see if it could help me start using the site more.

To the surprise of no one, small formatting changes, and even infrastructural shifts like moving the posts from MD files in repo, to being connected with a self-hosted Ghost instance were no problem for Claude Code. Really, it even made it more enjoyable to work on, since what I prefer to tinker with is my home server, not code changes.

I used AI to solve the problems I had, so I could make my site work for me. Now it's easier for me to write & publish quickly, so the only thing stopping me is the determination to put words on a page (and you better believe that that's still a huge hurdle for me).

It doesn't feel great to use AI "recreationally," and I don't think it ever will feel that good to me, given the economic, environmental, and ethical concerns around it. But I drive a gas powered car, use technology that's got precious metals, and frankly use AI constantly in my day job. This isn't the first time I've had moral flexibility to exist in the modern world, and probably won't be the last. At least it's helped me get to a place where I can actually document & publish my human thoughts, so there's some trace of me on the internet.