---
title: Exciting times ahead
description: Why am I optimistic and invigorated by AI after 30 years of programming?
pubDate: 2026-08-29
---

import { Image } from 'astro:assets';
import Starfield from '../../assets/starfield.mp4'
import StarfieldBG from '../../assets/starfield.webp'
import FrogJump from '../../assets/frog-jump.gif'

## Preamble
I recognize the subject of AI is complicated. You might find it controversial, distasteful, or totally reprehensible. However, if you continue, I hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt and take this all in good faith as I share my current feelings and use of this technology.

## Back to the 90s

I've been programming for roughly 30 years. I remember the very first website I ever created during a computer course I took the summer before sixth grade. It was about [tree frogs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_frog). (I regretfully never saved it.) But I bet it had all of the style and panache of a website in 1998:

<div class="breakout">
  <div class="grid items-center *:col-1 *:row-1 md:py-20">
    <Image
      src={StarfieldBG}
      class="md:hidden w-full aspect-2/1.5 object-cover"
      alt=""
    />

    <video
      class="hidden md:block w-full aspect-3/1.5 object-cover"
      src={Starfield}
      autoplay muted playsinline loop
    ></video>

    <div class="text-center" style="font-family: Comic Sans MS">
      <p class="mb-4 italic text-lg">Welcome to MY COOL SITE!</p>
      <div class="py-2 text-2xl md:text-5xl">
        <div class="motion-safe:hidden">
          <span class="text-[pink]"> Comic</span>
          <span class="text-[aqua]"> Sans</span>
          <span class="text-[yellow]"> and</span>
          <span class="text-[green]"> starry</span>
          <span class="text-[red]"> backgrounds!!! </span>
        </div>

        <marquee scrollamount="20" class="motion-reduce:hidden">
          <Image src={FrogJump} height={58} width={36} alt="Jumping frog" class="inline-block" />
          <span class="text-[pink]"> Comic</span>
          <span class="text-[aqua]"> Sans</span>
          <span class="text-[yellow]"> and</span>
          <span class="text-[green]"> starry</span>
          <span class="text-[red]"> backgrounds!!! </span>
          <Image src={FrogJump} height={58} width={36} alt="Jumping frog" class="inline-block" />
        </marquee>
      </div>

      <button
        x-data
        x-on:click="alert('wow thank you!!')"
        class="mt-4 text-[blue] underline hover:no-underline"
      >
        sign the guestbook
      </button>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

That experience launched me into a world where I was building websites for all sorts of things: punk bands, Nintendo games, and many versions of my own personal site.

It was **_exciting_**. I was just some kid from the Midwest and I could create things and put them out into the world! My latest hobby, what I was listening to, whatever. I could tinker around in Notepad or [Microsoft FrontPage 95/Express](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage) and push it out to the entire internet. Just&hellip;mindblowing!

This was such a formative part of my life that I took it from hobby into career and have spent nearly 18 years creating things for the web.

## The early days of web programming

I began my first job as a web developer around 2009 and things were much, _much_ different then. There was no "Next vs Nuxt" or "React vs Vue". We were so far from that.

Try being unable to reliably use [transparent images](https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/298/how-do-i-use-transparent-pngs-in-ie6). You couldn't use custom fonts [without involving Flash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Inman_Flash_Replacement). There were no [rounded corners](https://24ways.org/2006/rounded-corner-boxes-the-css3-way). If you wanted to battle-test your website, I hope you were comfortable [installing 4 different versions of Windows](https://superuser.com/a/921031) on a spare machine using VMWare/VirtualBox.

There were so many challenges to simple-sounding problems. And, even though it was difficult, it was **exciting**! Web developers creatively solving these types of problems was such an energizing force to the industry. So many incredible tools, resources, and communities were birthed out of years of iteration.

## The influx of web tooling

Fast forward to the late 2010s and many of the capability problems had been addressed. Of course, there were still challenges and problems—making web apps feel more like native apps, collaboration capabilities, platform scaling, state management.

But, we were deep in an era where the "framework wars" and tooling debates thrived. React vs Vue vs Svelte vs Angular vs Ember vs Solid vs Next.js vs Nuxt vs Remix vs...😰

For me, I felt like we entered into a period of hand-wringing and [bike-shedding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality). We were dead-set to curate the _perfect_ stack. One that had every feature you could want, felt "lightweight", and used the best API possible. Or, at least until one of two things happened:

1. The developer(s) abandoned or rebranded their library/package/system
2. Everyone got bored and moved on to something else

This was still a form of **fun**, though! Experimenting with tools, trying ideas out, and inexpensively moving on if they didn't "click". It's **exciting** to tinker!

<a
  href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rx_p3NW7gQ"
  class="text-5xl md:text-7xl text-center my-12 md:my-24 italic font-light text-balance inline-block no-underline tracking-tight"
>
  And then...the funniest thing happened.
</a>

## The advent of modern AI

Maybe your first run-in with _modern_ AI was similar to mine: queries to this new thing called "ChatGPT", GitHub releasing some kind of [fancy autocomplete](https://github.com/features/copilot), and footage of truly [horrific spaghetti videos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Smith_Eating_Spaghetti_test).

These effectively became the major groupings of what would be labeled as "AI":

- Chatbots
- Coding agents/assistants
- Generative creative tools

I'm going to focus primarily on the first two: **chatbots** and **coding agents**. Because my opinions on AI vary widely by its application and context, I've written a separate post about generative creative tooling in "[The Ship of Theseus](/the-ship-of-theseus)".

## Conflicting technology

I think it's an understatement that AI has all of us feeling _very_ conflicted. Some recent headlines:

- [Apple adds AI smarts to Voice Control, VoiceOver and Magnifier ahead of Accessibility Day](https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/21/apple-adds-ai-smarts-to-voice-control-voiceover-and-magnifier-ahead-of-accessibility-day/5243594)
- [‘I feel helpless’: college graduates can’t find entry-level roles in shrinking market amid rise of AI](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/12/college-graduates-job-market-ai)
- [AI-generated sensors open new paths for early cancer detection](https://news.mit.edu/2026/ai-generated-sensors-open-new-paths-early-cancer-detection-0106)
- [US datacenters tripled their water footprint in 10 years](https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2026/08/24/us-datacenters-tripled-their-water-footprint-in-10-years/5291564)

Four things are true to me about this technology:
1. It's capable of great good
2. It's capable of great harm
3. It's changing the world around us
4. **_(and I'll come back to this one)_**

Personally, as someone who has had an [on-again, off-again relationship with RSI](/how-ive-dealt-with-rsi-and-programming-full-time), but is also the [#1 candidate to lose his job because of AI](https://www.techtarget.com/ai/feature/Is-AI-replacing-jobs-How-17-job-types-feel-the-effects), I have this constant push/pull relationship with this technology.

On the one hand I'm fearful of being replaced and seeing the job market shrink. But, on the other, it's making a literal, measurable, significant improvement in my life.

I'm also tinkering with an entirely new technology. For the first time in a _**long**_ time. As I use tools like Claude, Whispr Flow, and Apple Intelligence I feel **excited**.

Right now, I have that same sensation as a kid in the late 1990s who was so interested in this new thing and _also_ had **no idea** where it was going.

## Exciting times ahead

Four things are true to me about this technology:
1. It's capable of great good
2. It's capable of great harm
3. It's changing the world around us
4. <strong class="text-yellow-400">and _we_ get to shape its future</strong>

Just like technology enthusiasts shaped the world of personal computers, the internet, web standards, and smartphones, we have a major role in shaping and fighting to make this better for the world.

People like you and me have power and autonomy and enthusiasm to advocate for the way we want this technology to be used. And, sorry, as much as some of you want it to simply "go away," it cannot be done. It's here. It's going to be used and no moral grandstanding is going to put the genie back in the bottle.

**BUT**, that _does not_ mean "do nothing and enjoy your slop".

- **We need to** champion good, ethical policies for training models
- **We need to** vote with our dollars
- **We need to** participate in local, state, and national elections that affect how AI is governed
- **We need to** protest when corporate donations are coming before public representation
- **We need to** have conversations with the non-technical people in our lives and help them better understand these tools

AI is here to stay. But the way it works, the way we use it, and the way it's created can change.

**_We_** can change it.

And that's why this kid from the Midwest is **excited**.