The Dangers of Being a Web Developer

Published on May 10, 2018 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under development. (Share this post, e.g. on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)

On Monday I had the great, great pleasure of giving the opening talk at beyond tellerrand in Düsseldorf. The slides are essentially useless, but as I had focused on delivery during the performance the talk should provide value. I hope. Please check out The Dangers of Being a Web Developer on YouTube or Vimeo ^*.

As I’ve been asked about the talk’s various references to mostly classic and excellent books, here they are:

• Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love
• Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think
• Jakob Nielsen’s and Marie Tahir’s Homepage Usability
• B.J. Fogg’s Persuasive Technology
• Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style
• Edward Tufte’s books, all of them
• Gary Keller’s The ONE Thing
• Alfie Kohn’s No Contest: The Case Against Competition

Thank you all who attended the talk, and Marc and team for the great conference and the kind invitation, welcome, and hosting! I can’t wait for the next beyond tellerrand—quite possibly in Berlin this November 🙏

^* In confusion of obscure European and German data protection legislation I’m not embedding videos at the moment.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and perspectives. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)