PUT IN THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR OWN WEBSITE, DAMN IT.
it is not hard to build a static website, and you definitely don't need generative AI to do it.
on the neocities subreddit, there's occasionally someone there who insists upon using AI to build a website's code for them. obviously people disapprove of this in the comments, but still i can't help but feel dread knowing that an alarming amount of people would rather accept a convenient final product with minimal effort instead of putting in the time to learn something new and adapting your site based on what you're capable of.
mega-billionaire tech execs need us to desire automation for everything. they want us to think that educating ourselves properly is a useless endeavor when their AI bots can "do everything for us." they need us to embrace the idea that taking time to do something doesn't benefit us.
no. the goal for this world shouldn't be a universal shift towards learned helplessness in exchange for convenience, for a way to avoid experiencing any ounce of self-exploration. it's increasingly becoming another bread and circuses situation, except soon we'll be starved of bread.
it's often said among PC builders that building a PC is like assembling LEGOs. you could say the same for a website.
that's what building a website feels like for me, except i'm presented with a pile of LEGOs and use them to build structures i'm familiar with, learning and creating new things the longer i work at it. that's why building a website is fun for me—i'm frankensteining these structures together until i'm satisfied with my creation, and i let myself continue to tinker with it.
"but you need to learn javascript! and python! what about ruby?!"
i'm going to admit this. i don't know a single lick of those languages. any javascript that's on my site was coded by someone else i publicly credit. the language i feel most comfortable coding in is HTML. i know a decent amount of CSS, but not as extensively as i do HTML. hell, this site is technically a version of sadgrl's site template—it's just that i've modified it to fit my vision of its simplistic theme. the fact still stands: HTML and CSS are powerful languages in their own right.
it was hard to build the initial site even with a template. it took a lot of rewriting, tweaking, a lot of "save" and "view" clicks. i scoured for hours, searching frantic questions through w3schools and stack overflow and copying and pasting, tweaking the code further. i stayed up until 4am until i felt like i had something presentable.
do i regret sinking in this much time into my website? no. would i have rather had chatgpt build the website for me? hell no.
i love that my website was mostly built with HTML knowledge. i love that it's clunky with my tagging system consisting of HTML pages made for each and every tag. it's a bit clumsy but it works. it's my space, my home, my creative outlet, my workshop. i can always continue adapting and modifying it however i wish. the technical steps to code something will always be a research session away.
i liked that it was hard. i liked being challenged to make something that i haven't really done to this extent before. i loved that i learned so much from the process of making my site. there is joy to be found in your life when you're eager for any and all opportunities to learn something new or unfamiliar.
there is value in letting the act of learning be a lifelong journey. the world is vast and so you can't know everything. no one does. humans connect over finding things hard, but just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not worth trying. why do you think i write? why do you think i sit down with my writing group, if not for the rewarding feeling of having written among a group of like-minded people cheering each other on?
reject AI.
seek help through others with more knowledge if you have to. use someone's template and modify it to fit you.
study CSS so you better understand the code you're modifying.
build your own website.