You're doing it wrong. You don't have to remember the incantations. You just have to remember that they exist, and then google them or ask an LLM when you need them.

If you use something enough you'll remember. If you don't, you just look it up when you need it. This is basic programming, nobody remembers everything.

“Layers upon layers of opaque incantations”

You’ve described software.

And how might you do this in Javascript?

they just said "LLMS"!

My point was that js would be vastly more complicated than these html/css "incantations".

Most front end engineers could do it in JS without ever having to look something up. But the CSS to do it is still obscure to most.

so, why not answer my question and say how you'd do it in js...?