New website, first blog post, and AI writing

Hello! Welcome to my personal website and my first blog post. I've migrated off Vercel and Next.js to TanStack and Railway. I don't think Next.js is a bad framework by any means, but I like the idea of a host agnostic framework, and it's fun to try and use shiny new things.

One thing I want to be transparent about as I start this blog is my AI usage. I use AI a lot: in production, in personal projects, and on this very website you're reading. I'm aware of the dangers, but I'm still an optimist about its future. I used to hold stronger views on AI writing, but as the models get better and more integrated, I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with using it as an editor, as a writing assistant, or to help generate ideas. What I don't think is fair or ethical is making readers read AI-generated posts. Personal blogs are meant for sharing your own ideas and thoughts with the world, so pasting LLM output into a space this intimate feels wrong. Maybe that changes in the future. Maybe everyone just becomes an editor, approving and rejecting ideas and word choices the way most developers already do with code (it's crazy that this is the norm now!).

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm hoping that rebuilding this site motivates me to actually write. I have three native Mac apps I'm planning to share and write about soon: a drawing app, a Moonlight fork, and an app that syncs with Ergodriven's Tempo standing desk controller. Hope to write again soon.

Kevin Patel