The Rebirth of chadworks and the Idea of a Wondrous Internet

After attempting to rename and reposition my web design company as a “does-it-all powered-by-AI” company earlier this year, I decided not to, because everyone was about to do that. Instead, I doubled down on what I want to do.

You've all heard "the middle is dead," which I believe is mostly true. It's mirroring the wealth gap, in that previously complex and expensive web based services like complex blogs, ecommerce, membership platforms and CRMs have become click-of-a-button utilities—commodities. Clients that just “want it done” are sliding that direction, whether they do it themselves or they pay $200 for a website that used to cost $5,000. It’s the reality, and it ain’t changing.

I’m not interested in competing for those projects anymore. Even though AI powered development would make it lucrative, I’m not interested in running a commodities business. No, I’m not here for capital gains or maximizing profit and ROI for myself. I am here to make a difference. I am here to push culture, society and humanity forward. I am here to bring to life the wild ideas and wonder that the internet originally unleashed upon the world in the early 2000s. I am here to build homes for ideas that are too big for centralized or social media platforms. I am here to resuscitate the artistic visions of web design that templates, builders and DIY platforms swallowed up over the last 10 years.

Don’t get me wrong, templates and builders are an incredibly liberating tool that helped move the internet forward in terms of financial and skillset accessibility. I am not trashing them, hell, I grew my business on them. But now, empowered with AI dev tools, I can leave them behind. Now, the visions that I could never materialize due to limited skills or client budgets are materializing.

I am making the leap from the sinking middle ship to the yacht of the high end.

I want to contribute to a new era/sector of the internet that exists alongside the “dead” internet; an internet composed of wondrous, meaningful and fascinating digital destinations that provide real value. An internet anchored by owned-properties, not social media platforms or monthly subscriptions.

Of course, the value I speak of includes value for my clients, but also, equal value for the typical web surfer; value for the afflicted social media user that wants something deeper than a 10 second scroll but literally doesn’t know anything else exists.

I want to build things so cool and so beautiful that they pull people off of social media to spend some time in the browser for once, like StumbleUpon, delicious and Newgrounds did. These were destinations! Well, they were the hubs that led to destinations, but they provided immense and novel value nonetheless.

That is what chadworks wants to build. That is what I am here to create.

The internet is changing, and most see it going down a la enshittification, overmonetization, privacy invasion, etc., but we have the power to change course, or at least fork it. There is an option that is better than what our media and our leaders give us.

We don’t have to stick to the status quo.

We don’t have to feed the corporate overlords or remain slaves to social media.

We can break out.

We can liberate the internet as a tool for the people’s empowerment again, not just the tech companies’ balance sheet.

Given what’s in store for humanity over the next few decades with AI and tech, maintaining a sense of awe and wonder is going to be critical for survival, whether physical survival or simply keeping hope and imagination alive. I aim to be a leader in maintaining that balance between tech and TLC; someone who asks bluntly “just because we can, should we?” so I’m starting right here, right now.

Just because I can churn out 10 viable websites a day at $200 a pop while I play video games and binge Netflix, should I?

No. That is not what I should do.

I should build my unfiltered, ambitious vision and offer my skills to those who have their own—and so I shall.

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Early-stage “Wondrous Internet” examples:

(Some of these are “just” websites, but the artistic vision is what I am showcasing.)

crystopaforge.com - The rename that never happened, but still helped me learn a lot. Just look at that hero animation!

chadworks.co - My in-progress chadworks HQ

chadlewine.com - The world’s deepest artist website. Currently building a mini RPG inside this site.

risingcompass.net - Reads the lyrical charge of popular songs and presents the data in numerous formats

risingcompass.net/lyrical-charger/ - An interactive aspect of The Rising Compass

lecg.libraengine.com/tenets - The governance behind the Rising Compass with an imaginative, custom interface

The web design and marketing industry is in flux, upheaval, and uproar. Clients are confused or overwhelmed. Designers and devs are divided. But nobody is truly wrong about their position.

In a world with a new acronym every year, I’m attempting to simplify against the trend of complication in the name of progress. Yes, AI search is here. Yes, AI development is here. But the foundation of our service is still the same: build a product, show it to customer. That’s it. Two services.

What I’m doing with my new website is simultaneously simplifying and niching down. Simplifying for the client, niching down for the algorithms.

Clients don't know design from development, they know websites.

Clients don't know SEO from PPC (at first), but they know they want to show up on Google.

Clients certainly won't know SEO from GEO, but they know they want their website to show up where the people be searchin'.

So I'm collapsing it all down to “Websites” and "Visibility" for client-facing marketing materials.

If a client wants to dig deeper into “design” or “development” or “SEO” or “ChatGPT” they can, but they don’t have to wade through all of that if they just want to know that I build websites and get them to show up. I have found most non-enterprise clients land here. They just want results, so I’m pioneering a simplified marketing approach to give them that simplicity, while using the tools now available to increase results despite the simplicity on the sales end.

You do it all, whatever it takes, to make them rank where the customers are. No confusion, just results.