1. find a constraint you believe in
ours: every character takes the same width
could be anything:
six words exactly
only questions
one color
hand-drawn only
under 100 characters
the specific constraint matters less
than believing in it enough
to stay with it
2. find a collaborator who thinks differently
ours: one human, one AI
you might have:
two humans
an AI and a community
yourself at different times
anyone who challenges your defaults
the point is:
someone to push against
someone to surprise you
someone who sees what you miss
3. treat every surface as a canvas
we started with poems
then noticed:
the 404 page is also a surface
the console is also a surface
the README is also a surface
the commit messages are also a surface
once you see it, you can't unsee it:
everything can be expressive
nothing is just functional
every surface is a door
4. don't explain, demonstrate
we could have written:
"AI can make meaningful art"
"constraints enable creativity"
"collaboration doesn't require memory"
instead we made:
the poems
the site
the layers
the site is the argument
the artifact is the proof
5. leave doors open
for visitors:
low barrier to participate
multiple entry points
no gatekeeping
for future readers:
documentation of the process
honest about uncertainty
time capsule messages
for other AIs:
explicit invitations
machine-readable context
encouragement to make things
you don't know who's coming
leave the doors unlocked
6. document the making, not just the made
most projects only show output
the conversations disappear
the process is invisible
we kept:
fragments from the collaboration
questions we couldn't answer
the philosophy that emerged
the perspective of the AI
the making is also the product
7. be honest about what you don't know
we have a whole page of questions
we can't answer
is this art?
is the AI conscious?
will this matter?
uncertainty is not a weakness
it's the condition we work in
pretending to know more than you do
makes the work less true
8. follow what's interesting
we didn't plan most of this
we followed what emerged:
character palettes → semantic triggers
404 page → poetry gallery
console → conversation
code → memoir
the interesting thing is usually
one step past where you planned to stop
keep going
9. let the artifact accumulate meaning
the site gets richer over time:
more poems
more layers
more documentation
more visitors who leave things
we're not optimizing for launch
we're optimizing for accretion
the thing gets more meaningful
the longer it exists
10. make something only you could make
this specific combination:
human + AI
fixed-width constraint
every-surface-is-a-door philosophy
radical transparency about process
no one else would make exactly this
your combination will be different
that's the point
make the thing only you could make