I started by asking AI to help me build a website for Thinking with AI . As we worked on it, I realized what I actually wanted was a personal site large enough to hold the book, my technical work, and everything else I’m curious about.
The book matters, and I made it easy to find. But I didn’t want the whole site to be a sales page for one book. I wanted somewhere I could keep adding projects, experiments, and whatever I happened to be figuring out next.
Start with the idea, not the layout
The first useful decision had nothing to do with colors or typography. I needed to decide what kind of site this should be. The answer was simpler than the original idea: this should be my site, with room for the book and everything else.
That choice shaped everything downstream. I use the homepage to tell you what I’m interested in, the book as one starting point, and the blog as a place where the work can keep growing.
Let context do real work
ChatGPT already had context about the book, my technical background, the way I use AI, and several projects that grew out of our conversations. I didn’t have to restate all of that in a giant specification. I could use the context we had already built to establish the site’s voice and purpose.
That made the conversation much more specific. Instead of asking for a generic personal site, I could point at real projects, old tutorials, the book, and previous decisions and say, “this is the material—help me shape it.”
Start small enough to finish
I kept the first version deliberately compact: one homepage, a clear visual language, three representative ideas, and a short introduction. It was enough to make the concept real without pretending I already had a giant archive.
Once I could see that version, the missing pieces became obvious. I added a clearer path to the book’s Amazon listing. I replaced the slightly precious phrase “field notes” with the simpler word “blog.” Then the process of making the site became the first post.
Make changes conversationally
The editing loop feels less like commissioning a website and more like talking with a designer and developer who can act on the discussion immediately.
- Say what feels wrong or what should exist.
- Work out the underlying reason.
- Change the design, copy, and behavior together.
- Publish a coherent version and react to the real thing.
AI can produce options quickly, but I still have to notice what sounds like me, what sounds generic, and what needs another pass. That part can’t really be skipped.
The website is now part of the thinking process
The interesting part isn’t simply that ChatGPT helped me create and host a website. It’s how little distance there was between saying, “I think the site should work this way,” and seeing that idea running on the page.
This post is a good example. The site needed a blog, the blog needed a first post, and the process of building the site became the subject. The thing started documenting its own creation.
What comes next
The next layer is content: more posts, individual thought trails, and eventually search. I want you to be able to search by keyword, but I’m also interested in something richer—asking the archive a question and being taken to the passages where an idea actually developed.
For now, I have a beginning, a purpose, and a place to grow. That is enough. I can let the rest emerge through the same process that created it: ask, explore, make, reflect.