$ cd ../journal
[Engineering][Dev Journal]

Dev Journal: Oct 10, 2025

>Richard Hallett#Friday, October 10, 2025

Built a complete narrative experience called 'The Architecture of Persuasion' - a sophisticated web application that presents the same evidence through 4 different interpretive lenses, demonstrating how AI-augmented engineering can be viewed positively or negatively depending on perspective.

Development Journal - 2025-10-10

Overview

Built a complete narrative experience called 'The Architecture of Persuasion' - a sophisticated web application that presents the same evidence through 4 different interpretive lenses, demonstrating how AI-augmented engineering can be viewed positively or negatively depending on perspective.

Active Projects: 1 Total Commits: 52

Projects

the-architecture-of-persuasion

Commits: 52 | Files Changed: 208

Built a complete narrative experience called 'The Architecture of Persuasion' - a sophisticated web application that presents the same evidence through 4 different interpretive lenses, demonstrating how AI-augmented engineering can be viewed positively or negatively depending on perspective.

Highlights

  • Built complete 4-act narrative experience from scratch with Astro SSG framework

  • Implemented sophisticated content pipeline parsing markdown to JSON with evidence locker system

  • Created 20 evidence items (8 code, 9 text, 3 dialogue) with dual positive/negative interpretations

  • Added syntax highlighting with Shiki and act-specific theming across 4 distinct visual identities

  • Implemented comprehensive feedback system with Turso database and serverless API endpoints

  • Added epistemic pivot analysis with three-part thesis/antithesis/pivot structure

  • Completed major UI/UX modernization with editorial design system and cinematic transitions

  • Successfully deployed to Vercel with hybrid rendering for API routes

Technical Decisions

  • Chose Astro SSG over React/Vue for zero-JS base with selective hydration

  • Implemented build-time content parsing with remark/unified for robust AST handling

  • Selected Turso (libSQL) for serverless database over traditional solutions

  • Used state machine architecture with vanilla JS over framework complexity

  • Adopted Shiki for syntax highlighting over runtime solutions for performance

  • Implemented side drawer evidence modal over centered modal for better UX

Learning Moments

  • Explored Astro's hybrid rendering model for mixing static and server-side content

  • Learned Turso database integration patterns for privacy-respecting analytics

  • Experimented with epistemic analysis structure for presenting multiple perspectives

  • Discovered effective patterns for build-time content transformation pipelines

  • Explored advanced CSS theming with act-specific visual identities

Originally generated by gitmaxxing

$ git remote -v

the-architecture-of-persuasion
$ git log --oneline -1 HEAD~1Dev Journal: Oct 6, 2025$ git log --oneline -1 HEAD@{1}Dev Journal: Oct 15, 2025