https://public.gwynnemonahan.com
Simple. Basic. Like an HTML site of yore.
I forgot what a simple, basic HTML site is like. The web has grown beyond basic HTML. I remember when MySpace seemed cool, and was the place to go online to find new music.
Found myself appreciating vibe coding today, which made me feel a twinge of regret, or remorse. Still not sure which. Growing up, computers and computer programming weren’t things for girls. Beyond the computer lab at school, I didn’t have much exposure to computer programming. I didn’t really know what HTML was until after college. HTML. CSS. JavaScript. Felt like learning a series of foreign languages in bits and pieces.
The use of tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools feels like it has put power in my hands that I’d only dreamed about. I can build things that do thing. I can create scripts that simplify tasks.
For example, my Instagram posts. The images come separately, as does the text that make up captions. Do you know how long it takes to comb through a five years of Instagram data by hand? How long it takes to manually go through images and try to match the image with the caption, looking at the files and your Instagram feed? A long time. A very very long time.
In an evening, ChatGPT help me create a script that did it for me.
Images. Captions. Time stamps.
All of it.
In an evening. AN EVENING.
I didn’t stop there, though. I used ChatGPT to help me create step-by-step instructions to comb through my Instagram data, compile what I want, and format it for a book I can then have printed and given as a gift, or set out on a coffee table. Whether those step-by-step instructions do lead to a book I can have printed remains to be seen as I haven’t completed that procedure yet. I’ve only done the first part of combing through my Instagram data, pulling out what I want, and putting it in a file I can more easily read later. There are story nuggets in there, and now I’m better equipped to find them.
Vibe coding has its benefits, and I’m here for it.