Words that would otherwise be coming out of my mouth

Here’s Harry with a great process for identifying third-party scripts that wreak havoc on performance. Note that while he discusses bytes and bits, these problems are mainly political. The attitude in which you approach a process like this makes all […]

I posted about my struggle to learn React, and I talked about how ES6 and React travel together, and it’s hard to untangle things. This post does a good job of dividing what convention belongs to React and what belongs […]

This is a very good read about our collective infatuation with “innovation.” The authors argue that maintenance is just as — if not more — important than innovation. Entire societies have come to talk about innovation as if it were […]

Love this post from Zach, reminding us that websites don’t have to be a gigantic pile of dependencies and complexity.

How to Take Criticism Ask yourself: Is this helpful or not helpful? Translate. Stay curious. Hang in there until you receive actionable feedback. Very good read about how to take criticism in your work.

I recently posted about my struggle to learn React. There are a lot of personal reasons for this, which I explain in the post. But I’ve also found it frustrating that many React tutorials, projects, and boilerplates I’ve encountered are […]

This is the dumbest publishing platform on the web. Write something, hit publish, and it’s live. There’s no tracking, ad-tech, webfonts, analytics, javascript, cookies, databases, user accounts, comments, friending, likes, follower counts or other quantifiers of social capital. The only practical […]

Here’s a great response to my My struggle to learn React post from Andrew Ingram. He addresses each point one by one, which I find to be really helpful. Source: A response “my Struggle to learn react” – andrewingram – […]

I’m going to be honest: I’ve had a hell of a time getting my head around React. More than any other technology I’ve touched over the last 10 years of my career, I just haven’t had it click for me. […]

Here’s Jeremy with some wise words about design systems. The generally-accepted definition of a design system is that it’s the outer circle—it encompasses pattern libraries, style guides, and any other artefacts. But there’s something more. Just because you have a […]

I have yet to dive deep into CSS-in-JS, but I’ll admit I’m skeptical. This podcast by Chris Ferdinandi lays out a lot of the reasons why I’m a bit apprehensive. Three other observations I’ve noticed as I encounter CSS-in-JS in […]

Fantastic talk slides from Trent about third-party scripts’ implications on performance. I wish I could have seen the talk in person.

A few people have gotten in touch with witty comments like “Care to comment?” It’s always fun to see people get caught up in labels and nomenclature, but ultimately I think the mental model continues to be helpful (for me […]

From Una: CSS grid is AMAZING! However, if you need to support users of IE11 and below, or Edge 15 and below, grid won’t really work as you expect (more info here). This site is a solution for you so you […]

I really appreciate Alex Lillo taking the time to write up this review of my workshop I conducted in London last week. We need teams that have enough understanding and empathy for each others’ work, that value working together instead […]

Everything you always wanted to know about implementing scrolling but were afraid to ask. We have scrolled to the bottom of modern web specifications to take you on a whirlwind tour of latest CSS and JavaScript features that make navigating around a single page smooth, beautiful and less resource-hungry. This is a […]

Card grids are definitely a common pattern in almost all my projects, and I’ve run into all of the pitfalls Dave lays out. I’ve been thinking a lot about this post ever since I read it, and I feel I […]

Finally, to repeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all.  Think more about what to work on.

The inimitable Ethan Marcotte recently wrote an article about the dangers of advising people to pursue certain actions/techniques even if they don’t have permission from their bosses or stakeholders. I’ve noticed a rhetorical trope in our industry. It’s not, like, widespread, […]

TL;DR: Design systems + CSS Zen Garden = Awesome. Is it possible to create a single design system that powers wildly different-looking brands and experiences? The answer is yes! But why would you want to? Different audiences and contexts – […]