AI is a powerful tool that lets you tackle complex problems that might normally take weeks and resolve them in hours. Think about how many late-night coding sessions we've had where a mistake slipped through due to fatigue. It happens—we're human—but I think those days are numbered. AI acts like a force multiplier for an already skilled developer, providing backup and speed.
I finished this site over a year ago, but it sat stale due to other obligations and projects. While everyone was spending Thanksgiving feasting, watching football, and shopping over the weekend, I was hard at work ripping this site apart and adding new features. Just kidding—I was sick. But that's beside the point. I got some fun stuff done.
I wanted to overhaul the front end and upgrade the framework. That alone could have taken days to nail down and test, but I wanted to partner with AI to see what we could accomplish together.
Day One
I updated the codebase to Tailwind 4 within an hour. I can't even take credit for the speed—AI tore through the problem. My job was to define the problem, explain how I wanted it solved, and tell the AI to ask clarifying questions whenever directions were unclear or could lead to issues. This is where it got fun. It was like playing devil's advocate with myself, except my sparring partner could surprise me. Once the solution was thought through, we had a game plan, and it was off to the races. While that ran, I sketched out what the look and feel of the site should be. When the task finished, I reviewed the changes, gave direction on adjustments, and after a few hours, the site was completely revamped.
Day Two
Things got more challenging. I wanted to fully automate deployments using CI/CD. I've done this plenty of times, so I figured I could give clear, precise direction. In reality, I probably could have done it faster myself. Even with clear instructions, AI kept getting steps out of order. It seemed like suggestions were just stitched together from random training sources—or so I thought. After reviewing my session, I spotted areas where I could have broken the problem down further. We are, in a sense, our own AI: what comes to us as an intuitive game plan still needs to be decomposed into smaller steps so the model can follow the same path.
Reflection
I'd read countless posts saying "you'll have your A-Ha moment," and I kept waiting for mine. Before, AI was just a cool, powerful tool. Then it hit me: I'd been using it wrong. Break directions into smaller pieces. Think about how you would have wanted to learn the topic. That's my A-Ha moment. Hopefully you've had yours too.