Building a Personal Portfolio from Scratch
July 4, 2025
This website represents my journey into web development, built entirely from the ground up using modern web technologies and AI-assisted development practices.
Technology Stack
- Frontend: HTML5, CSS3, Vanilla JavaScript
- Development Environment: Visual Studio Code
- Version Control: Git, GitHub
- Hosting: GitHub Pages
- Domain: Custom domain (wernerroslin.fi)
- Development Assistant: ChatGPT for code generation and debugging
Design Philosophy
The site prioritizes clean, responsive design with cross-device compatibility. Key features include semantic HTML structure and progressive enhancement principles.
Implementing Consistent Design Systems
July 8, 2025
Recently completed a comprehensive refactoring to establish a unified design system across all pages, improving maintainability and user experience consistency.
Key Improvements
- Centralized CSS: Consolidated styling into a single stylesheet
- Component Architecture: Reusable UI components across pages
- Responsive Design: Mobile-first approach with fluid layouts
Technical Implementation
The refactoring involved establishing CSS custom properties for consistent theming and creating a modular component system that scales across the application.
Lessons in AI-Assisted Development
July 11, 2025
Working with AI tools like ChatGPT has revealed both the potential and limitations of current AI assistance in software development workflows.
Effective AI Integration
- Rapid Prototyping: AI excels at generating initial code structures
- Problem Solving: Effective for debugging and optimization suggestions
- Knowledge Transfer: Excellent for explaining complex concepts
- Code Review: Useful for identifying potential improvements
Identified Limitations
- Context Management: Performance degrades with project complexity
- Architectural Decisions: Requires human oversight for system design
- User Experience: Cannot evaluate usability without human feedback
- Code Quality: May prioritize functionality over maintainability
Best Practices Developed
Successful AI collaboration requires clear, specific prompts, incremental development approaches, and maintaining human oversight for architectural decisions and user experience considerations.
The Real Talk About AI: My Love-Hate Relationship
August 12, 2025
Let me be brutally honest about working with AI. It's complicated. Without AI, I wouldn't have the patience for coding - but AI also drives me absolutely crazy sometimes.
Why I Need AI (VibeCoder Confession)
I'm what you might call a "VibeCoder." When I get excited about an idea, I want to see it happen RIGHT NOW. I don't want to spend hours debugging tiny mistakes or reading boring documentation. AI saves my sanity by:
- Instant help: When I get stuck, AI unstucks me immediately
- Skip the boring parts: AI handles tedious debugging stuff
- Keep the momentum: I stay excited instead of getting frustrated
- Focus on creativity: I think about what to build, AI helps with how
But AI Also Ruins Everything
Here's where it gets annoying. I'll ask for something simple like "make this button prettier" and suddenly I get 200 lines of CSS with animations, gradients, shadows, hover effects, and transforms. Dude, I just wanted it to be blue!
The Generic Factory Problem
AI loves making everything look the same. Ask for a website design and you get the same boring template: hero section, three feature cards, testimonials, call-to-action button. Where's the personality?
My AI Survival Strategy
I've learned to be very specific with AI:
- "Keep it simple" (repeat this 3 times)
- "Don't add features I didn't ask for"
- "Make it weird and personal, not generic"
- "If it takes more than 20 lines, you're doing it wrong"
The Honest Truth
AI is like that friend who always has opinions about your life choices. Sometimes helpful, sometimes overthinking everything. Without it, I'd never finish anything because I'd lose patience. With it, I have to fight to keep my projects from becoming boring.
So yeah, I'm a VibeCoder powered by AI who constantly argues with AI. It's messy, but somehow it works!