The Hour I Lost to a Plausible AI Debugging Answer
A confident AI diagnosis of a React Native hydration issue sent me refactoring the wrong layer for 45 minutes. The real bug was a string "null" in the API.
Richard Lemon
Richard Lemon is a Creative Web Experience Developer at Ideebv, Maastricht. He writes about frontend craft, AI workflows, and tools that make work feel less like work. Youth baseball coach, chronic self-optimizer, builder in public.
The client code I will not paste into an AI tool
A practical line between “helpful AI code review” and “leaking your client’s business model,” based on operational privacy rather than legal fine print.
The frontend code I deliberately keep boring
One feature taught me that a neat React state machine was less valuable than three plain useState hooks, and it changed how I choose boring frontend code.
The metric I stopped letting ruin my morning
For months my HRV score decided if I was allowed to feel competent that day. A 90-day experiment changed it from a verdict into one quiet input among many.
What My Automated Archive Exposed About My Writing
Reading a batch of AI-written posts in my Ghost archive made the patterns obvious: recycled transitions, invented habits, generic intros, fake closure, and why even a few real notes change the result.
When smooth animations make a fast site feel slow
A site can be technically fast and still feel slow if your animations sit between intent and feedback. These are the ones I shortened, simplified, or removed after watching real users.
Where Cursor Stops and My Judgment Begins
Cursor is very good at filling in the boring middle. Recent client work showed exactly where that stops, and where experience still has to say no.
The health dashboard I check less now
My health dashboard went from decision tool to confirmation ritual. Once I stripped it back to a few blunt metrics, the excuses disappeared and the habits improved.
The First Ten Minutes of Testing a Design on Mobile
I spend the first ten minutes of mobile testing without DevTools: thumb reach, dead hover states, 100vh traps, sunlight, forms, scrolling, and quiet frustration.
I Would Rather Publish 600 Useful Words
Fixed word counts made my writing longer, not better. I stopped aiming for 1,000+ words and started cutting until it hurt. The result: denser posts, better trust.
The lineup I got wrong
One bad Saturday lineup showed me how quickly attitude and last year’s logic can override hard numbers, and how I changed my process afterward.
The Morning a Yellow Recovery Score Overruled Me
One yellow 43% recovery score forced me to cancel squats, move a session, and change how I schedule training. That weekend turned HRV data into a traffic-light rule set.