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.
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.
The Essence of Veganism
On not having anyone suffer or die for us.
Know the “search” Element
Let’s talk about element #112.
The Price of a Dream
A look at what it costs to travel the world, a decade later.
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXIV
On AVIF tests, book prices, AI experiments, Eleventy performance, IE scripts and styles, domain registrations, site headers, and (old) document functionality that can better be handled by native HTML elements than by handmade scripts.
Death by Experience
It’s possible to hire too much experience, and it costs diversity and culture.
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXIII
Affiliate marketing and ads and Brave Rewards. HTML elements and dotenv and Git. Spellings and designs and stuff.
When Amazon Just Wipes Your Entire Device Ebook Library
How to manage to scare away the most loyal customers.
We Need to Talk More About Conformance, If We Want to Stop Fantasy HTML
Conformant and valid HTML is the exception on websites and in apps, even though valid output is a sign of professional web development. Given how rarely the topic is being discussed these days, we benefit from raising more awareness for HTML conformance and validation.
The Great Tech and People Hypocrisy
When we value people so much that we “rif” them even with cash in the bank, maybe we don’t value them as much as we say we do. On a two-faced industry that needs firing standards as much as it needs hiring standards.
Now Available: Upgrade Your HTML V!
The newest part of the ebook series for HTML craftspeople and minimalists, touching on past, present, and future of the greatest document language ever specified.
Critical Feedback: Four Approaches and One Twist
Feedback is important so that we can learn and improve. Critical feedback is important to expose, validate, and address areas of growth and development. I believe that fundamentally, there are four approaches to critical feedback.
April 24 Is JS Naked Day
Every year on April 9 we, a part of our field, do without CSS; from this year on, on April 24, there’s an opportunity to temporarily swear off JavaScript.
Declining 1:1 Meetings Without a Message Is Rude
It happens everywhere, but it sets a bad example.
Sustainability Trap
On the need to take and at the same time reassign responsibility for consumption and pollution.
Exploitation
What and who is easiest to take advantage of and exploit, how is that being justified, and what can be done about it? On one piece of the puzzle what the fewest things are that need changing, to change everything.
Julia and Sybil
The early manuscript of a novel I started in 2015, and that will still take a few years to be finished.
On the Gift of OKR for Company Culture
“OKR,” short for aspiration, candor, and accountability.
Building Websites and Building Websites Well
On exercises, orthogonality, and—choice.
The Next Adventure
On leaving Germany again, and the next big chapter of my life.
How to Counter Provocation and Rumor
Are there effective responses to being provoked, picked on, blamed, attacked? Absolutely—but they’re not all being taught or shared a lot. A few quotes that I’ve found useful.
“Web Design as a Process” in Charts: Maintenance, Decay, Tech Debt, and Big Bang Launching
Web design is a process. This process relates to the quality and completeness of a given website, as observed over time. We can chart and understand different types of this process.
Why I Like Scrumban
Over the past years, I’ve become a fan of Scrumban, a mix of Scrum and Kanban. But what is Scrumban here, and what is there to like about Scrumban?
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 write about philosophy.