Medium

John Polacek

John Polacek

·

Jun 2, 2025

Training an AI GameMaster to run D20 Adventures

I’ve been thinking about making a multiplayer RPG web platform since my days as a Flash dev. There are plenty of online TTRPG options out…

Training an AI GameMaster to run D20 Adventures

John Polacek

·

Aug 24, 2024

I Made a Custom AI Birthday Card for $4

For my wife’s birthday, I used AI to create a custom birthday card then printed it for $3.49.

I Made a Custom AI Birthday Card for $4

John Polacek

·

Jan 15, 2024

Introducing AnimateIn: A New React Utility Component for Animations with Tailwind and CSS

I’ve been using the same animation pattern in my projects for awhile now to animate elements onto the screen. In its simplest form, you…

Introducing AnimateIn: A New React Utility Component for Animations with Tailwind and CSS

John Polacek

·

Sep 15, 2023

Dodging Errors Left and Right: How to Set Up a Public AWS S3 Bucket

Setting up a bucket on AWS S3 with public access for things like hosting images or downloadable file assets is a fairly common use case…

John Polacek

·

Aug 20, 2023

Using ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter to Work With the Latest Tech Libraries

Ever tried asking ChatGPT about some shiny new library that just dropped? If you did, you might’ve hit a tiny snag. You see, our AI buddy…

Using ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter to Work With the Latest Tech Libraries

John Polacek

·

Aug 13, 2023

How to Build Dynamic Websites Powered by Automated AI-Generated Content

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could make a website that generates its own content all by itself? Well, good news — you can!

How to Build Dynamic Websites Powered by Automated AI-Generated Content

John Polacek

·

Dec 24, 2020

The Death of Flash, the Rise of React and What’s Next

A bit over 10 years ago, I was a Flash developer. We were in high demand in those days.

The Death of Flash, the Rise of React and What’s Next

John Polacek

·

Aug 13, 2017

Building a Design System Playground

Like many others, I’ve been thinking about design systems lately. Especially after reading Unified Styling Language.

Building a Design System Playground

John Polacek

·

Jun 9, 2017

The Web Dev Life Cycle

Learn* cool new thing. Learn newer, better version of cool new thing. Cool new thing becomes dead old thing.

John Polacek

·

May 31, 2017

By The Numbers: A Year and Half with Atomic CSS

There has been controversy about Atomic CSS (or Functional CSS if you prefer). Much has been written, but what about some cold hard…

By The Numbers: A Year and Half with Atomic CSS

John Polacek

John Polacek

Senior software engineer in Chicago. Flash-era web dev, popular jQuery plugin author, and occasional humorist. Building cool web stuff and AI side projects.

Following

Help

Status

About

Careers

Press

Blog

Store

Privacy

Rules

Terms

Text to speech