Gemma Croad

The impact of AI nobody’s counting What clicking ‘generate’ costs the planet

We don't talk about the fact that every time you ask ChatGPT to write a poem about your cat, you're contributing to a climate crisis we all claim to care about solving.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

The technical interview problem in engineering Why we keep using a hiring process we know doesn’t work

Technical interviews filter for people who are good at technical interviews, not people who are good at engineering.

We all know this, but we keep doing it anyway.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

Layoutit Terra - CSS Terrain Generator An interactive CSS terrain generator. Define a grid and generate your terrain!

This is very cool!!! It's a CSS terrain generator that leverages stacked grids and 3D transforms. Apparently inspired by Transport Tycoon, Sim City and other '90s isometrics classics, it's built with Vue and Nuxt 😍 terra.layoutit.com

CodePen Challenge: CSS Shape ...

A little bit of fun for this weeks @codepen.io challenge using CSS shape() and corner-shape, a random kaleidoscope generator... 🥰 💠

codepen.io/GemmaCroad/p...

Are we adapting AI to humans, or humans to AI? Why we’re bending ourselves to fit the machine instead of the other way around

We tell ourselves we're optimising. Making things more efficient, more scalable. But what we're actually doing is quietly redesigning human work to fit AI's limitations one "optimisation" at a time.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

The productivity problem in engineering Why measuring productivity makes everyone less productive

Measuring productivity makes everyone less productive. We optimise for what gets counted, and the work becomes producing metrics.

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Why AI is a people problem, not a technical problem We keep looking for problems to fit our AI solutions into, then wondering why nobody uses what we build

When you start with "we need to use AI" and work backwards to find problems, you're not solving technical challenges. You're avoiding uncomfortable conversations about what you're actually trying to accomplish.

The hard part isn't building AI, it's knowing when not to.

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Why talking to AI might be making us lonelier How AI conversations are replacing human connection without us noticing

We're practising how to talk to something that never challenges us, never misunderstands us, never requires us to deal with messy human communication.

The more we practice that, the worse we get at the real thing.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

Are we too quick to trust the output of AI? Why the most convincing AI outputs might be the most dangerous

AI uses more confident language when it's making things up than when it's actually right.

We're dealing with pattern-matching systems that don't know when they don't know something.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

Drawing explaining the JS execution model and event loop

💥 did a small drawing explaining the JS execution model including the event loop. I hope it’s helpful to folks. Debugging is always easier when the underlying implementations are understood.

CodePen Challenge: Color Wheel A bit of a nod to the vintage style colour wheels I used to love as a child, and still do....

I created this vintage colour theory poster for this weeks @codepen.io challenge! It's a loving tribute to those beautiful scientific colour wheel prints I was obsessed with as a child (and honestly still am)... 🥰 🌈

codepen.io/GemmaCroad/p...

The culture fit problem in engineering Why the person who doesn’t quite fit is exactly what your team needs

"Culture fit" in tech hiring often means "doesn't make us uncomfortable by questioning how we do things."

But what if the person who doesn't quite fit is exactly what your team needs?

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

The promotion problem in engineering Why technical excellence doesn’t automatically make someone a good leader, and what happens when we pretend it does

There's something bothering me about engineering promotions. We assume good coders automatically make good leaders. Spoiler: it doesn't work that way.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

Why AI slop matters more than you think How generated content is drowning out human voices online

Searched for banana bread recipes lately?

You'll find "The Ultimate Guide to Perfect Banana Bread: 15 Amazing Variations" written by a system that can't actually taste, touch, or try anything.

This is AI slop. And it's breaking how we learn from each other.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

The History of Themeable User Interfaces A full-ish history of user interfaces that can be themed to meet the opportunities and constraints of the time

This is a bit of a stroll down memory lane bradfrost.com/blog/post/th...

Why engineering isn’t just coding (and AI won’t change that) Why business leaders misunderstand what engineers actually do, and how that impacts AI adoption

“Why do we need all these engineers when AI can just… write the code for us?”

Because engineering is mostly not coding. It's figuring out what you're actually trying to build and why.

medium.com/@gemma.croad...

The human spark and why we shouldn’t outsource our creativity Creativity is at the heart of what it means to be human, yet many in the tech industry are trying to convince us to outsource that spark to…

The tech industry promises AI will free us up for more creative work. But what happens when we outsource creativity itself? I’m curious to hear your thoughts, especially if you work in a creative field. How are you thinking about this balance? medium.com/@gemma.croad...

The Future of Design Systems: Shipping Intelligence Rather Than Code Are traditional design systems becoming AI constraint systems? Maybe the real value isn’t in pre-built components anymore, maybe it’s in…

How is your organisation thinking about the intersection of design systems and AI? I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and I'd love to chat if this is the space you're working in 🙂 medium.com/@gemma.croad...

Thought for the afternoon: Are traditional design systems becoming AI constraint systems? Potentially the real value isn't in pre-built components anymore, maybe it's in the systematic knowledge about how things should work together? 🤔

In Praise of “Normal” Engineers This article was originally commissioned by Luca Rossi (paywalled) for refactoring.fm, on February 11th, 2025. Luca edited a version of it that emphasized the importance of building “10x engi…

I just read “In Praise of Normal Engineers” by Charity Majors' and it’s a refreshing take on the “10x engineer” myth. TL;DR: It’s not about unicorn individuals, it’s about building 10x teams where normal, everyday engineers can thrive, ship, and make real impact... 🙌 charity.wtf/2025/06/19/i...

CSS Intelligence: Speculating On The Future Of A Smarter Language — Smashing Magazine CSS has evolved from a purely presentational language into one with growing logical powers — thanks to features like container queries, relational pseudo-classes, and the `if()` function. Is it still ...

CSS is advancing to become a more intelligent language, driven by emerging features such as container queries and the if() function. Gabriel Shoyombo explores this, considers the increasing complexity, and examines how developers are responding... 🤔 www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/07/css-...

CodePen Challenge: Spheres ...

Continuing with the CodePen challenges... 😁 codepen.io/GemmaCroad/p...

A brief history of JavaScript | Deno In 30 years, JavaScript went from being a little scripting language to one of the world's most popular. Here are key moments to show how it has evolved and where it is headed.

JavaScript turns 30 this year! It's gone from a tiny, quirky scripting language made in 10 days to the hottest programming language out there. Here are some big moments in its history that show how JavaScript has grown and where it's going next... 🎂 deno.com/blog/history...

Designing For Neurodiversity — Smashing Magazine Designing for neurodiversity means recognizing that people aren’t edge cases but individuals with varied ways of thinking and navigating the web. So, how can we create more inclusive experiences that ...

Designing for neurodiversity means understanding that these folks aren’t just exceptions but have unique ways of thinking and engaging online. So, how can we make experiences that are more inclusive and work better for everyone? www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/06/desi...

It really does, doesn't it 😅

The People’s Graphic Design Archive is a truly special project. Its aim is to create a virtual, crowdsourced archive that helps preserve the history of graphic design. You can explore it by collection or topic, or simply scroll through the homepage to discover some gold... 🫶 peoplesgdarchive.org

CodePen Challenge: Squircles ...

Because I still like writing CSS and building cute things... codepen.io/GemmaCroad/p...

I think what makes me nervous is the scale at which AI code generation operates means that accessibility flaws get reproduced at a magnitude we've never seen before in web dev. A single accessibility oversight in an AI's generation pattern could be multiplied across countless digital experiences.

A big question for our industry: If we increasingly rely on AI to generate frontend code, and that code tends to underperform on accessibility, are we at risk of creating a more inaccessible web?

Taking a long social media break was exactly what I needed, but I've missed connecting with everyone. I'm really looking forward to jumping back into conversations and catching up on what I've missed 🙂