I will not miss writing hypertext markup

a few days ago

I decided my personal website needed a refresh, some changes in component styles here and there, removing some rounding, some unnecessary padding, the works. As a bonus, the colour accent now corresponds to the current day of the year.

During this, I had the visceral realisation that aimlessly writing markup is a miserable use of my time, and that said time is better spent learning design tools that feel more ‘tactile’ — or doing non-computer things…

This is a stark contrast to the enjoyment that I derive from writing code in a compiler or server. I still get the same high from getting into a flow state and getting a compiler bug fixed within a single unbroken chain of thought. Genuinely nothing else comes close.

I used to, and still think of programming as an art form in itself: there are often several solutions to the same problem and discovering the most elegant one feels genuinely fulfilling. Curating a library’s API and having it pay off via effortless usage in business logic takes both depth and taste.

HTML and CSS solve very specific problems: to display content on a viewport and make it look good. They are a means to an end and I don’t get the same fulfillment from writing them. As such, I feel as though there’s very little to romanticise.

I’m glad agents are good at writing hypertext markup. I won’t miss it.