𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗜𝘀 𝗮 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 People often notice the finished website. What they don't see is the work that happens before the first page is designed. Understanding the audience. Planning the user journey. Organizing the content. Defining conversion goals. Choosing the right technology. That's the foundation that makes a website effective. The tools matter. The design matters. But strategy is what brings everything together. As I prepare for another week of building and improving websites, I'm reminded that every successful project starts with listening before designing. Wishing everyone a productive week ahead! 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲?

I was wrong about AI and development. Here's what changed my mind.

A year ago, if you'd told me AI would touch a meaningful chunk of my actual paid work, I'd have pushed back. I thought of it as a toy for writing boilerplate — useful, but nowhere near the real craft of building something pixel-accurate, something that actually holds up in production.

I don't think that anymore.

I ship landing pages in 1-2 days now that used to take a week. Not because I cut corners — because AI removes the boring 60% (debugging syntax, Googling the same CSS trick for the hundredth time, writing the same n8n node logic from scratch) so I can spend more time on the 40% that actually makes a project good: animation feel, structure that won't break in six months, thinking about what the client actually needs.

Here's the part that surprised me most: the developers who are getting replaced aren't losing to AI directly. They're losing to other developers who figured out how to use AI as leverage, faster than they did.

I used to think "using AI" meant admitting I couldn't do it myself. Now I think refusing to use it is the actual risk.

Still think craft matters more than ever — AI can't tell you what "feels right" for a client's brand, and it definitely can't build trust with a design studio on a call. But the tools changed. Pretending otherwise isn't purity, it's just slower.

What's something you changed your mind about this year?

The shift from seeing AI as boilerplate help to using it in paid work is a relatable arc. What was the first real project where it genuinely changed your mind?