Jens Oliver Meiert
Articles and books on the craft of web development (specifically, HTML and CSS optimization and maintainability) as well as on engineering management and leadership. (Exceptions prove the rule.)
Not Knowable
Casual appreciation about our dealing with knowledge.
Untrained Engineering Managers
Web development has always had a developer training issue, but it also has one on the management and leadership side. On a challenge we’re all familiar with but rarely talk and do something about.
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXVI
Optimizations related to the Google docs viewer, dependency management, English terms in German copy, Prettier, AWS, SEO bots, Eleventy, and DreamHost.
On Ticket Management
Issue tracking tools like Jira, GitHub Issues, or Bugzilla are essential for managing bugs and tasks (that is, issues). However, not everyone finds ticket management convenient or convincing. A perspective on why tickets matter, and how they can be used well.
The Assessment Paradox
For any individual or group we may think that it can assess itself best because it knows itself best. Yet this is not reliable. We may then think it’s other individuals or groups interacting with that first individual or group who may be able to assess it. This is not so, either.
2024: 0.5% of the Global Top 200 Websites Use Valid HTML
The annual HTML conformance analysis, validating 200 home pages of the most popular websites. Despite improvements, there is no signal of commitment to valid output as a quality baseline to benefit end users as well as web development as a profession.
On Disagreement
From discomfort that can lead to shortcuts to challenges that may yield transformations.
The HTML History and Optimization Cheat Sheet
Compare elements and specifications, check on void elements and optional tags.
Notes on Setting Up a Static Website With AWS (Route 53, S3, ACM)
…and whether doing so is worth it. (There are pos and cons, and they all seem pretty dramatic.)
Notes on Hooking Up a Website With Cloudflare
I played around with Cloudflare.
Imposing on Hearing
On the sense that we may be able to defend the least.
Why I Don’t Block AI Scrapers
“The Tortoise and the Hare,” human/AI edition.
We Always Knew Anyone Could Take Our Content
From “I show your content, but you get the click” to “I show your content” to “here’s other people’s content based on your content.”
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXV
On caching headers, capitalization, social graphics, download priorities, logical properties, Cloudflare, viewport metadata, obsolete markup, and calls to action.
A Web Development Term a Day…
…on Mastodon, Bluesky, and Twitter/X. (With a queue lasting 10 years and growing.)
AI Paradox
Have you outrun your headlights yet?
Now Available: “Rote Learning HTML & CSS,” the Most Boring Free Ebook Ever
The book you never thought you wanted. The rough and raw skeleton of HTML and CSS. Elements, attributes, selectors, properties. No explanations, no examples, no context. Not a New York Times bestseller (it’s free).
A Node and Command Line Tool to Find Obsolete HTML
Ever wondered if and where you have obsolete HTML in your code base? Of course, there’s a tool for that.
Feed Sources 2024
My current feed subscriptions. (Because, what would we be without syndication on the Web.)
Calling Someone “Too Old” Is Ageist
The “too old” thing needs to stop.
On Mapping the World of Frontend Development
What if we had easy access to many—thousands—of the most useful, interesting, influential frontend development posts from 2000–2019? If you took care of it, how would you go about it, what challenges would you face, what would excite you? Here are some impressions, doing this work, for Frontend Dogma.
On Title Case
Casual thoughts about my experience with title case, a recent switch from AP-inspired to NYT-governed guidelines, and the respective guidelines themselves.
Thoughts on CSS in 2024
What I appreciate, what I don’t need (so far)—light and casual and certainly subjective notes on contemporary CSS.
Transitive Optimization Considered—Interesting
Transitive optimization means that if we improve A to optimize B, and optimizations of B also optimize C, then improving A should also lead to an optimization of C. But now what?
3 Good Reasons for Vegan and Vegetarian “Substitute” Products
On acknowledging forms, maintaining connection, and making it easier to live empathically and sustainably.
About Me
I’m Jens Oliver Meiert (short: Jens), and I’m a frontend engineering leader and tech author/publisher.
Apart from engineering management and leadership, I specialize in focused frontend development, contribute to web standards, and write technical books, like The Little Book of HTML/CSS Frameworks, On Web Development, CSS Optimization Basics, the Upgrade Your HTML series, and The Web Development Glossary.
I also study and write about philosophy.