My AI Content Journey and Writing Evolution
The SolidJS creator reflects on 8 years of technical writing, community editing, and the turning point of using LLMs.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- The SolidJS creator reflects on over 8 years of technical writing experience.
- Early content editing was heavily supported by communities on Gitter, Spectrum, and Discord.
- Crucial editing lessons included breaking long paragraphs and cutting filler words.
- Late 2025 marked the first intentional experiments with LLMs for technical problem solving.
This account comes without any automated tooling applied to it. There are no grammar checks, no AI assistance, and no polish passes for flow, keeping it intentionally raw and reflective of the past.
For those familiar with the journey, hundreds of articles have been produced over the last 8 years. Very early into creating SolidJS, education stood out as a fundamental barrier. React rhetoric dominated the frontend space, making discussions around alternative ideas quite unwelcoming, while modern tooling complexities left many feeling overwhelmed by JavaScript Fatigue prior to 2016.
Early writing efforts were extremely rough. Translating ideas proved difficult despite a decent command of English, as concepts extended far beyond code examples by drawing on years of cross-disciplinary observations. Articles required immense length to make a point, easily getting lost in details while mimicking a disjointed train of thought through excessive punctuation.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
When framework authors personally author educational material from day one, it establishes a vital foundation for community understanding, bridging the gap between raw code and core philosophy.
Community involvement expanded after publishing on Medium in 2018, where early Solid members on Gitter and Spectrum began offering editorial reviews. This practice persisted, with most articles still appearing in the Solid Discord days prior to publication.
A community member eventually suggested adopting Grammarly, which proved immensely helpful for catching missing words and commas while offering suggestions for awkward phrasing. However, the true breakthrough arrived when publishing through online publications like Angular in Depth in 2019.
During an editing session, @layzee demonstrated how to split writing into concise paragraphs rather than packing complete ideas into six to eight run-on sentences, advising to keep paragraphs under three sentences and utilize spacing and images.
"Give them a break to sit with what you just told them. Add spacing and images to your articles for the same reason."
@layzee
Between 2020 and 2022, Theo Browne (T3.gg) reviewed numerous articles, ruthlessly stripping away unnecessary filler phrases like "And...", "In fact", "But Honestly", and "Actually.." to ensure every sentence packed a genuine punch.
By late 2025, despite previously remaining an AI laggard who avoided chat LLMs while noticing a surge of AI-generated garbage articles quoting work, perspective began to shift. Readers occasionally accused original pieces of being AI-generated due to dense information packing.
Working on Solid 2.0 high-level design in late 2025 prompted the first trial of LLMs, specifically using free CoPilot running on 5.1 to talk through technical problems and seek fresh insights.
Source: Dev.to
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