Why I Code Like Ada Lovelace

I chose Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing for my computing history exam. The more I read, the more simple it felt: Ada cared about thought, not pointless repetition. She saw that machines could take over tedious work so humans could spend their energy on something better. That idea stays with me.

Happy Women’s Day to everyone coding anyway

Happy Women’s Day to every woman, girl, and femme who learned by trying, copying, fixing, changing, and trying again. Happy Women’s Day to everyone who built from fragments and still made something strong.

We still build. We still learn. We still make things that people can feel, use, and remember.

The Process

I copy code. Change it. Test it. Fix it. Make it clearer. Make it better. Ship it.

I am not sorry.

What Ada Wanted

Ada Lovelace did not write about machines because she worshipped difficulty. She was interested in what could be handed over to a system so the mind could be free for higher work.

That matters to me. Not the myth of genius, but the idea of saving human energy for what matters most.

          // The Lovelace Principle (1843 → 2026)

          if (machine.canDoIt()) {

            machine.execute();

            human.reserveEnergyForMeaning();

          }

My Version

I build pages that need to feel alive, not just function. I care about tone, rhythm, feeling, and clarity.

If I spend all my energy writing every detail from nothing, I have less left for the part I care about most: the shape of the thing, the feeling of it, and the life around it.

So I use help. I reuse code. I let tools speed things up. Then I decide what the page should feel like and what it should say.

What I’ve Been Coding Recently

The work speaks for itself. Lately I have been making pages with movement, atmosphere, and a strong sense of place.

Recent coded practice

Pages with pulse and motion Interfaces shaped by rhythm, movement, and mood rather than flat stillness.

Mountain and night atmosphere Dark landscapes, depth, glow, and visual space that feels immersive and alive.

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript remix craft Full pages, layered backgrounds, responsive layouts, and code reshaped into something that feels like mine.

Work with feeling Design that tries to be memorable, clear, and emotionally real instead of merely correct.

The mountains belong here because they are part of how I think. I do not want a life where all my time disappears into syntax.

Why This Matters

Ada Lovelace asked what machines could be made to do. Alan Turing asked whether machines could think. Between those two questions is the space where human and machine begin to work together. That is where posthuman authorship begins.

My pages are not made by isolated genius. They are made by choices, tools, revisions, and thought shared across human and machine. That is not lesser. It is honest.

Remix matters because transformation matters. Taking what exists and making it your own is still authorship.

Women Who Build Do Not Owe Anyone Purity

One of the worst myths in coding is that only the hardest path is the real one. As if struggle itself is proof of worth.

I reject that. Using tools well is still skill. Reusing, adapting, and finishing the work still counts.

Women’s Day test:

Is she still a real coder if she remixes, directs, transforms, and ships instead of making everything the hardest possible way?

Answer: yes.

What matters is whether the work holds thought, feeling, and purpose.

Mountains and Code

I would still rather spend three hours hiking than three hours proving I can do everything from scratch. The mountains give me perspective. They clear my head. They remind me that life is bigger than the screen.

That is part of why Ada Lovelace matters to me. She reminds me that saving time and energy is not laziness. It is a way of protecting a life.

Code as Shared Knowledge

Code is shared. Patterns are shared. Snippets are shared. That is how people actually learn and build. Most good work grows from what others made possible first.

The myth of the lone coder is less useful than the truth.

What I’m Actually Good At

Good at: mood, structure, feeling, composition, and knowing when a page is alive.

Decent at: finding solutions, reshaping code, and building fast from fragments.

Still learning: cleaner structure and deeper technical detail.

That does not weaken the work. It explains the work.

The Point

Efficiency is not laziness. It is making room for what matters.

Ada Lovelace believed machines could take over repetitive work. I use tools in that same spirit: so I can build, think, hike, and still have something left of myself at the end.

I am not here to prove I invented the wheel. I am here to make something beautiful with it.

Final thought:

Ada did not worship pointless difficulty. Neither do I.

References

Hayles, N. Katherine. (1999). How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. University of Chicago Press. Useful for thinking about how human work and machine systems overlap.

Russell, Byron. (2015). Appropriation Is Activism. In E. Navas, O. Gallagher, and X. Burrough (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies. Routledge. Helpful for grounding remix as transformation rather than lack of originality.

Toole, Betty A. (1992). Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Lord Byron’s Daughter and Her Description of the First Computer. Strawberry Press. Important for understanding Ada’s words, life, and ambitions.

Computer History Museum. Ada Lovelace. Broad historical overview of Ada Lovelace’s work and legacy.

Primary sources. Ada Lovelace’s letters, journals, and correspondence preserved at Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the British Library. Her 1843 Notes on the Analytical Engine published in Scientific Memoirs.