I can’t believe it’s already 2026. I still remember writing my first posts about AI image generation back in 2022 and 2023. Time has flown, and the industry has accelerated in a way that’s hard to fully grasp. Styling images has come a long way.
Image cohesion has improved drastically. I can both learn from others prompts, but also carefully piece together an idea for a visual and the models do a good job of filling in the gaps. It has inspired me to continue to progress in my manual art practice, with my paintings and drawings improving with rapid ideation. It’s like scrolling art styles on crack and getting inspired so fast.
Additionally, I can generate styles that stick to a ‘look’ or series of visual parameters. I have been having not only a lot of fun with this, but I have been training myself on how to cleanly define what I want to be common between different outputs while making sure the variables allow for all kinds of outputs.
This has been a really fun way to practice the skill. I’m doing something similar in my day job – where I front load a lot of parameters to get some great, predictable results . I also apply this across my side projects for the types of things I build.
A few thoughts on AI in other spaces…
Right now I’m speaking my thoughts out loud using a tool called VoiceMod. It turns my voice into structured writing based on instructions I’ve given it. It doesn’t change what I mean, but it makes everything much faster. It cleans up grammar, pauses, and those moments where I correct myself mid-thought. What comes out is basically what I meant, just clearer.
That experience points to something bigger. AI has worked its way into almost every part of my daily life. As a software engineer, there’s no avoiding it. In many ways, it came out of our field and is now reshaping it.
What’s changed isn’t what I can do. It’s how I do it. I used to feel like I was placing each brick by hand. Now it feels like I’ve built a system that does it for me based on the structure I define. I can step back and think ahead while things keep moving.
It’s not just about speed. These tools can process information in real time and connect to things like weather, markets, and other data. With local models, you can keep that private. The shift is that I’m less focused on execution and more focused on what actually matters.
There are downsides. There always are when something this big changes how we work.
I think about the agricultural revolution. It pushed progress forward but wiped out large parts of natural land. The tradeoff was real. The same is true of the Industrial Revolution. It shaped modern life but also created long-term environmental damage. We’re still dealing with that.
AI feels similar. I have mixed feelings, but it’s already here. The focus now has to be on how we adapt. We need to keep using our own thinking and not let it fade. I have to evolve to stay relevant, but I also want to. The upside is too compelling. I can learn faster and spend more time on things I actually care about.
If you look at the wish list under my name on this site, you’ll see one example. I used AI to build a WordPress plugin that keeps a database of things I like in a simple format. It has a clean bookmarklet and admin dashboard. No ads. No tracking. No algorithm trying to push something on me. Just something that works the way I want it to.
That’s the kind of project I used to struggle to make time for. Not because it was too hard, but because it took too many steps. Now I can define what I want, set guardrails, and let AI handle the rest.
That shift matters more than the output. I don’t have to choose between building things and living my life. I can garden, see friends, work out, and still move ideas forward.
The biggest change is this: my hobbies and my projects aren’t competing anymore. That’s a huge improvement in how my day-to-day life feels.
I expect this will keep evolving. For now, I’m just focused on building.
