Biography

Hi, I’m Jens Oliver Meiert (short: Jens, which is almost pronounced like “yes”). I’m an expert in web development, specializing in HTML and CSS optimization and maintainability, and I work as an engineering leader (last for Miro). After years in Germany, Canada, Switzerland, and the United States, I now live in Spain (Galicia). In the past I used to share all sorts of career highlights and personal priorities, but here are just three potential points of interest.

Jens and Beatriz, on May 28, 2022.

Figure: With my better half.

1. Contributing to the Craft of Frontend Development

I’ve been creating websites since 1999. I’ve built HTML/CSS frameworks from 2000 on, for themable systems. I was the lead frontend developer behind the 2004 relaunch of GMX, potentially Europe’s first billion-visits site to be based on standards-conformant HTML and CSS. I’ve built Google’s first HTML/CSS frameworks, and developed some of Google’s few valid properties (curiously including the China homepage and the error page). I’ve cautioned about Conditional Comments, resets, AMP. I’m known to push on total separation of concerns, DRY CSS, HTML–HTML. I may run the largest web development glossary and one of the largest web development archives. And I’ve probably done silly things, too (miles?). I love frontend development.

2. Writing Books

I’ve written 22 books and booklets (you can get them at Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, Leanpub, Gumroad, and O’Reilly), many of them for O’Reilly or Frontend Dogma and about web development, some of them popular and well-received, others not. I also frequently write articles, usually for meiert.com, but also including A List Apart, CSS-Tricks, SitePoint, and heise (where I’ve run a column). Occasionally, I speak at conferences.

3. Trying Out Everything

I’ve traveled the world solo for one and a half years (557 days), visiting 6 continents and 48 countries. Overall I’ve been to a third of all countries in the world, and I like the idea of having seen half until I die (I still travel but it’s not a high priority). One of my books describes the 2013–2015 journey, just as another describes how I not only explore places, but also activities. I love trying things out.

❧ For random personal factoids about me: I’m a vegan, a blood donor, a green social democrat, a Werder Bremen fan and member, a tabler taking a foreign-country hiatus (RT and OT 233 Alster-Milchstraße), an extensive reader, a Drum & Bass listener (not exclusively), and someone who can do coffee and hummus (but not much else).

For more details, please see my standard CV (PDF), my profile at LinkedIn, or also an older long version of my biography. Thank you for the interest.