I came across this blog post https://x.com/trq212/status/2052809885763747935?s=20 and at the beginning I thought it was garbage from random YouTubers that beg for everybody’s attention with the promise of making them AI builders (with all the respect and love of the world).
My first reaction was this is yet another guy that wants to get some attention that is suggesting we get rid of Markdown and use HTML instead. First-gut reaction was that it was absolutely silly; markdown is the format of AI… or is it?
This is another good example of how instinct depends on beliefs, because later that day, I found that the guy who wrote that worked at Anthropic, and that suddenly completely changed my first perception. Then, I needed to go over it and see what is the fuzz about. So I did… kid of. (I haven’t finished reading it but I really wanted to blog something about it).
HTML instead of Markdown
I started reading the article. I’m bout 50-70% approximately. There are a few ideas in the article that kept me thinking. Big time.
The first one was about no one reading markdowns that are over 100 lines. That’s absolutely right. Pun intended. I don’t do that myself. I’m in the middle of the analysis of the IEEE 29148 “Requirements Engineering” docs to use as foundation for Spec-driven development, and I have generated a few of markdown analysis reports, and even with all the motivation I have (or I thought I had), I don’t read them. I questioned my self: “Why am I generating them in markdown in the first place?”. There’s nothing wrong with Markdown. I love the freaking language or whatever that is. I am writing this blog post in markdown for crying out loud. It’s just that the article keep me thinking if markdown is the right format for Specs that will be reviewed by humans and later implemented by AIs. I don’t have the answer right now.
Other idea was about the ability to share HTML. That one made me think a bit more. The truth is no one shares HTML files. But also no one shares markdown files. Markdown is shared thru git commit and push. Mostly by technical people. But HTML is not that different EXCEPT that when you double-click it, it will open beautifully in any web browser. I’m not sure I can speak the same about markdown. And you can embed styles and JS to make it beautiful and interactive.
Other idea was about using AI to edit the files instead of manually. This one is tricky because I’m a control-freak. I lost days and weeks, and sometimes even months chasing perfection, and for that virus I have, markdown is perfect. It’s friendly with control-freaks like myself. But one thing is true: I use AI to edit my files more often than before. Can I replace markdown and use HTML instead for small edits? I don’t know. What does that workflow look like? I don’t know.
Either way, I just wanted to write a little bit just to get into the habit again. I plan to finish the article and maybe if I’m not lazy, I will share another round of thoughts.
All I can say right now is that it definitely keeps me thinking.