When the prompt is longer than the code

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Anand S

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Jun 5, 2026, 5:31:58 AM (5 days ago) Jun 5
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I used pi to create a compact home page for media.s-anand.net using these prompts:

Create index.html - a simple, elegant page that says that this page (media.s-anand.net) serves large media files for Anand - that's where they should look instead.

... followed by:

Skip the part that says "Please visit ..."

... then:

Shorten index.html to just 2-3 elegant rules of CSS. I want it MUCH smaller and simpler.

... and finally:

Center vertically and horizontally.

These prompts ended up being larger than the 471-byte index.html:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>media.s-anand.net</title>
<style>
  body { min-height: 100vh; display: grid; place-content: center; margin: auto; font: 1.25rem/1.6 system-ui, sans-serif; }
  h1 { font-size: clamp(2rem, 8vw, 4rem); }
</style>
<h1>media.s-anand.net</h1>
<p>This domain serves large media files for <a href="https://www.s-anand.net/">Anand</a>.</p>
</html>

Not that this matters, because:

  1. I didn't know what I wanted and having an AI coding agent generate a first draft helped with starting trouble and ideation.
  2. I don't know how to center on the screen and this did it for me.
  3. I am practicing the skill that matters - reviewing - and not the skill AI is taking over - writing code.
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