Ungovernable
The comic strip from two weeks from now is here! The topic is somewhat related to next week's comic, which I shared earlier (some of you will have to wait until Monday to see it!).
It's not strictly a comic about CSS (or is it? 😉), but as always, it's coded with HTML and CSS. I'm using the component library I've been building to make creating comic strips with HTML and CSS faster. The whole thing is about 75 lines of code, including markup and styling.
Initially, I had a shorter, two-panel version. It was faster and punchier, but I feel the three-panel version tells a more complete story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Part of the inspiration for this comic comes from the online "Become ungovernable" meme, which has many variations. But it also comes from a short conversation on social media: Jen Simmons asked about the current state of web development.
I initially replied with a silly animated GIF ("really bad"), but then I realized she might have been asking about the state of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which have been thriving.
I followed up with what could be seen as a somewhat cynical take on the current state of AI development (emphasis added for this post):
I think the web as we know it will die. But... the web as we knew it died already a long time ago, and we are still here. We will adapt, and we will keep crafting and building a web for humans surrounded by a web crafted for robots built by robots.
Who would have said that building a website could become an act of (tech) defiance?
As for the features and support, the web is moving forward, faster than ever, and with more support than I could imagine. Do I have opinions about some of the actors in it? Yes, but I'll leave that for another day.
That middle sentence stuck with me because I really believe it.
In a world where software development in general, and web development in particular, are increasingly being shaped by AI, and where the focus is shifting toward bots and agents rather than people, building a website for humans (and by humans) feels like an act of tech rebellion.
It may not be much, but it's something. Why not keep building quirky sites, weird little pages, and the small, beautiful things that made the Internet the Internet?
We will adapt and use all the tools available to us at work, of course. But we can also keep doing things like this, like coding a comic about CSS with CSS. However small it may seem, it feels worth it.
Anyway, sorry for the diatribe! I hope you liked the comic. It will be published on October 26, and sometime before then I'll share a few random cartoons I've come up with recently.
If you've read this far, thank you!
See you next time!