You're reading this because Claude just built me a website.
I used to have a personal website a long time ago, but it was built on some template-based design platform (I genuinely cannot remember which one) that was just too much of a hassle to maintain. There is a reasonable argument to be made that personal websites, while mildly useful, are not all that important for academics quietly teaching and researching at universities and colleges.
Then, about a week ago, I attended a workshop on vibe coding, largely focused on Claude, specifically its Cowork and Code tools. That got me thinking more seriously about the ways Claude could be genuinely useful to me, professionally and in everyday life. Among several projects I am now considering, this website was one of the first things I tackled. And it was a great experience.
The process went roughly like this: I asked Claude to find examples of personal academic websites. I gave it a PDF of my CV and publications list. Then I asked it to interview me, to raise any questions it considered important for building the site. Once that was done, a working template was ready in a few short minutes.
Needless to say, I did not like it. The design felt off, the writing was pretentious and unmistakably AI-generated, the photo suggestions were not my style, and the overall portrait of me was so self-congratulatory that even I found it irritating. But with some careful feedback on my end, and a fair amount of back and forth, this website gradually took shape.
So for now, Claude reigns supreme. I wonder how long that will last.