HTML Is The New English
HTML is the new English.
A few years ago even a simple web page took real skill; that barrier is gone. Anyone can describe what they want to an agent and get back an animated page with diagrams, formatting, video and sound. At work, people are building pages instead of sending long docs — pulling the data together, connecting the dots in diagrams, animating it. The downside is real (version control, commenting on a sentence); the upside is that you see it in a way a static page never showed you. Present your information in ways you couldn't imagine before — expand your vocabulary to code.
- The barrier to making code is gone — anyone can make HTML now.
- Expand your vocabulary to code: present information in ways a static page never could.
Transcript
HTML is the new English.
A few years ago, producing code — even a simple web page — took real skill. That barrier is gone. Today anyone can open a laptop, describe to an agent what they want, and get a page with diagrams, rich formatting, colour, video, sound — a beautiful animated page they can present.
English is still better at some things. But the ways we can communicate asynchronously just expanded — exponentially. Because now, anyone can make HTML.
Here is what I see at work. We write a lot of internal doc pages. Long ones. Now, more and more, instead of sending a doc, people build a page. They pull data all together. They connect the dots in diagrams. They animate it. And they send you that.
The downside is real. You lose version control. You lose commenting on sentences. The upside: you see it. In a way a static page could never show you.
So here is my working theory: present your information in ways you could not imagine before. Expand your vocabulary to code.