There is no magic

When you're not experienced in a particular field or with a technology it can feel like you're doing something wrong, that you're missing some special sauce that others know. To you it feels like magic.

You pursue this magic, immersing yourself in any resource you can get your hands on. You devour online talks from experts who effortlessly wield the technology like a magician. You dissect documentation, going over every detail in search of clues that might give you a little slice of the magic. You delve deep into the source code, deciphering its intricate pathways.

Eventually, you struggle your way to a working implementation but to you the magic still exists. You think to yourself; "I must be missing something", "This can't be how other do this".

You continue to pursue the magic, this time looking for something, anything to prove to yourself that what you wrote was a kludge and that a crisp, clean implementation exists. That magic exists.

Hours go by and you begin to get scrappy. ChatGPT gives you an answer which can neither confirm nor deny the existence of magic. However traces of the kludge begin to appear. First you start seeing them in the forums, beginner questions answered by wizards who know the magic. On this reading of the documentation your kludge is hinted at. Then in the source you see it, your kludge is staring right back at you.

Now adequately disillusioned you accept your kludge. You accept there was no magic, just a pretty wrapper.