coding, Mr. Clanker, and asking for help
hi. this weekend I've literally been on the computer for hours. been working on my Linux installation, and my website. both are going pretty dang well.
Linux is turning out to be something I can actually use on a day to day basis. it even runs all my games from steam.
then as for my personal neocities website, it's a whole lot of fun. I really missed the freedom you get and creativity that's required for pure Javascript, html and css websites. you don't just import a library if you want some icons to spin around in a specific order, you gotta implement it yourself. and I love that challenge. it's like art- I'm coming up with a unique coding solution that's unique to me, and only me. I don't give a crap that it's not well optimized or runs in O(n^2) time complexity, it works and I put a lotta love, sweat, and tears into it.
although... I do feel sometimes that my brain is atrophying. for some of my past projects, I would rely on ChatGPT a LOT. whenever I got stuck on something small, something I could have definitely done on my own, I would just ask the Clanker. and he would do it for me. that is literally not good. I have this one block of code on my website that actually does run in quadratic time and i know i can optimize it, but i really just havent exercised that part of my brain in a while (leetcode 🤮) it's kinda sad. but at the very least, I stay aware in my problem solving process, only asking Mr. Clanker things I know i can't do on my own.
AI has been a good thing for me though, especially in this department- I always had trouble asking for help growing up, even in college. It was primarily due to low self worth and some contrived thinking that "a man doesn't ask for help, he does it on his own. asking for help means you're weak." which is of course, not true. Senior developers need to ask questions all the time, to google, stack overflow, other coworkers, and now, AI. But that's where AI really helped me, though. Mr. Clanker doesn't judge. I'm able to ask all of my "stupid questions" all I want, and after asking so often, I found my questions aren't stupid at all- I just had trouble forming them, because I never had any practice asking. So yeah. AI really gave me a safe space to practice asking more questions. And now, when I try asking a human a question, I won't have as much trouble as I used to.
Anyway, website's fire so far, but I feel like I really should work on my other projects, the one i need for my resume. Imagine my html/css/js website on my resume. "Wtf is that? Anyone can do that" says the recruiter. I disagree with you because, no, not really, I dont think anyone as done this cool-ass looking CD disk music switcher on their website before, so I, koolblue, am the only one in the world who can do this. 👑 ....anyway, 😂 yeah I think I'll do some React Native next week. My little practice app where you find dogs that match you. I am feeling better so maybe I can make time for both.
I am tryna finish my website though this is so fun 😤