This is a submission for the DEV April Fools Challenge
What I Built
"I Want To Be..." is a life advice generator that takes your dreams and fulfills them — literally.
Want to be rich? Change your name to Richard.
Want to be a ninja? Wear all black and move slightly too quietly. People will get the idea.
Want to be a cat? Knock something off a table and maintain eye contact. Cat energy.
It's a genie who passed the bar exam for loopholes. You asked, we delivered. Technically.
44 categories of deadpan, literally-correct life hacks — from "astronaut" to "wizard" to "left alone" — plus 24 universal fallback answers for the truly original dreamers. Every answer is technically true. None of them are helpful. All of them are stamped 100% LEGIT ADVICE.
Demo
Type in your dream (or click a suggestion chip), hit GO, and receive your personalized life hack — complete with confetti, because every piece of advice deserves a celebration.
Features:
- Instant, client-side advice — no API calls, no loading spinners (well, a fake one for dramatic effect)
- "Another One" button when one piece of wisdom isn't enough
- Copy & Share to spread the enlightenment
- Previous Wisdom history so you can review your journey of personal growth
- Fully responsive — receive life-changing advice on any device
Code
I Want To Be...
Technically correct advice. Guaranteed results.
Tell us your dream. We'll find the shortcut.
"I want to be rich" → "Change your name to Richard."
"I want to be a ninja" → "Wear all black and move slightly too quietly. People will get the idea."
"I want to be a cat" → "Knock something off a table and maintain eye contact. Cat energy."
What is this?
A life advice generator that takes your dreams and fulfills them in the most literally correct way possible. Think of it as a genie who passed the bar exam for loopholes.
Built for the Dev.to April Fools Challenge.
Features
- 44 categories of literal life hacks covering everything from "rich" to "a wizard" to "left alone"
- 24 universal fallback answers for when your dream is too unique even for us
- Zero API calls — all advice is locally…
The entire engine lives in a single answers.js file — a keyword-matching system with 44 category pools and a fallback pool. No AI, no APIs, no machine learning. Just a large switch statement's spiritual successor and a lot of deadpan energy.
// The core loop: match keywords → pick random answer
export function getAnswer(wish) {
if (!wish || typeof wish !== 'string') return pick(FALLBACKS);
const normalized = normalize(wish);
const cat = findCategory(normalized);
return cat ? pick(cat.answers) : pick(FALLBACKS);
}
How I Built It
Tech stack:
- HTML + CSS + vanilla JavaScript
- Zero dependencies, zero build steps
- Google Fonts (Bebas Neue + DM Mono) for that editorial/brutalist aesthetic
- Deployed on GitHub Pages
Design approach: The UI is intentionally designed to look like a legitimate, well-crafted advice tool — editorial typography, a newspaper-inspired layout, sharp borders, noise texture overlay, and a "THE SOLUTION" label with a red "100% LEGIT ADVICE" certification stamp. The earnest presentation makes the deadpan answers land harder.
The humor engine: Each category has a list of keywords and a pool of 4-6 answers. Input is normalized (lowercased, punctuation stripped), then matched against keywords using word-boundary regex. First category match wins. If nothing matches, you get a universal fallback like "Google it. Click the first result. You now know as much as most experts."
The whole thing started from a meme about literal problem-solving — want to live in a mansion? Apply to be the housekeeper. Want to be Elon Musk? Just change your name. We turned that energy into 200+ answers across 44 categories.
Prize Category
Community Favorite — because everyone has something they want to be, and everyone deserves technically correct but spiritually empty advice about how to get there.
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