Hello Reader,

I’ve been seeing questions like this one more and more often these days.

I have a lot of thoughts on this that I’m trying to put together for something bigger, but these are the main reasons I keep making CSS tutorials:

• First, the obvious one: I like CSS!
• And I like to show what’s possible, and show that it can be fun and rewarding

The second point, specifically showing what’s possible, I think is the important part.

Some people tell me they can do what I show in my videos with a single prompt, but the problem I see with one-shot prompting is the laziness around it. The vibe-coded era of websites and apps all looking and feeling the same has me reminiscing about the old days of Bootstrap sites all having a similar look.

It’s the same type of issue, but now there is so much more of it because it's so fast to put things out.

Also, I know a lot of people still enjoy writing CSS, and so I still make videos for them, but I also hope that in showing what’s possible, and exploring the fun details and little things we can add to our sites, I’m showing people that even if you prompt your way there, it’s worth going beyond the one-shot to try and add the nice details that help polish and set your site or app apart from all of the sameness that’s out there.

AI can be a powerful tool, but instead of leveraging it to help elevate their own skill sets to make amazing things, so many people seem content just to put out mediocre results… and I’m hoping that, with what I do, I can at least help convince some people it’s worth continuing to make their corner of the internet just a little bit more awesome.

📺 Recreating GTA6’s awesome scroll effect ​ This is one of those videos that had some of the AI comments on it, and one where I think it’s fun to explore some of the cool things we can do that AI wouldn’t create on it’s own. ⚡ 5 CSS generators that beat asking ChatGPT ​ Five free sites for the CSS that’s a pain to write by hand and hard to describe in a prompt: mesh gradients, SVG backgrounds and blobs, Temani Afif’s CSS generators, Easing Wizard for linear() springs and bounces, and DiceBear for placeholder avatars. 🎙️ Developers like AI, so why aren’t we happier? ​ Over on General Musings this week I look at the latest developer surveys, where most people say they like the AI tools they use while motivation is down and burnout is up, and also how there seems to be a divide, where there are some devs that are enjoying things more with the rise of AI. What can the people who are burning out, or who aren’t enjoying the use of AI, learn from those who are seeing it as a big win?

🏁

And to finish things off this week, a quick question for you: Would you be interested in a Web Components conference? My friend Michael Warren is thinking of organizing one, so if it’s something that you’d like to see, he has a quick questionnaire that will help decide if it’s going to happen, and what it might look like if it does.

And that’s it for this week!

Cheers, Kevin

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