2016
CSS Shorthand Syntax Considered Important
CSS shorthands are no anti-pattern, just as little as universal selectors, just as little as !important, and just as little as no-js would not be one. Now we learn that shorthands were an anti-pattern. No, they’re not. Yes, they are! No they’re not.
Why I Don’t Use CSS Preprocessors
A tribute to Roger Johansson as well as the craft of web development.
Contradictions: A Problem of Logic, a Feature of Reality?
On my list of research topics and article drafts is one that covers root assumptions: assumptions at the core of what we assume about our two realities, psychical and physical reality. One of these root assumptions covers logic…
Highlights from Myer’s “Oldest Books in the World”
“Study on a subject before giving an opinion” and other truly old realizations.
Highlights from Scovel Shinn’s “Your Word is Your Wand”
Short excerpts that convey a rather unconventional view on our realities. “Happiness and health must be earned by absolute control of the emotional nature.”
About the Mindset for Quality
In my view, quality starts with quality thinking. Quality thinking is broad, but it quickly leads to a quality mindset. This mindset, now, I’ve long regarded as critical…
Stop Using the Old “Clearfix”
I had thought the old method of clearing through .clearfix:after { clear: both; content: ''; }
long dead, but then I spotted it quite alive and even being taught to developers.
Privacy, Obscurity: Randomizing New Tabs
You want to leave a less predictable online trail? I wrote a little browser extension for Chrome that accomplishes that: the New Tab Traffic Randomizer. The extension requests a random URL every time a new tab is opened…
Living and Mistakes
We can’t make a mistake living our own lives. A counter to the fear of doing wrong, the harmful idea of guilt, as well as unhelpful doubt, the statement’s power lies in the realization that it’s impossible for us to live our lives “incorrectly.”
Why Philosophy Matters
Philosophy is a field that once combined all the sciences and had considerable influence. Over time that influence waned, to an extent that philosophy is now simply one of the humanities, a “second order” discipline that some people wonder what it’s useful for…

New Book: “The Little Book of Website Quality Control”
The hallmark of a professional is not the pursuit of activity, but the expertly pursuit thereof. What’s worth doing is worth doing well; and what’s done well exemplifies quality. A professional website is no exception, and there are criteria and tools to help.
Highlights from Paine’s “Common Sense”
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.”
Highlights from Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”
Launching a new series of highlights and factoids from public domain books, classic or not, that had piqued my interest, and perhaps excite yours. Here from American polymath Henry David Thoreau.
Accelerated Mobile Pages, a Critical View
Last year Google introduced AMP and the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project. Independent of suggesting tech paternalism when AMP gets treated preferably in search rankings, I’ve been concerned about what the AMP spec entails exactly.
10 Photos III
Establishing a three-, four-, or five-monthly series, here are ten more of my photographic favorites as of late. Of my own works, sure; if it was public what one liked on EyeEm I’d happily disclose which 4.200 photos…
Life’s Golden Rules
From all my cheeky laws and a number of absolutistic posts you already know I have a thing for dramaturgy. The same here.
The Bio Enhancement Dilemma
Or, what if Donald Trump was Iron Man.
WordPress Themes and Web Development
Like everyone on this planet I work with WordPress. Just setting up a new project I ended up using and building on one of their default themes, Twenty Sixteen. Had I better not?
The Anatomy of a Coding Guideline
Coding guidelines produce consistency, help (code) usability, collaboration, and maintainability, and lead to quality. That is what we all typically learn in development practice. Now, what does a guideline consist of?
On Tailoring and Web Frameworks
After building early frameworks for GMX and Google I had rushed to squeeze my experience into a (literally) little book. In it there’s emphasis on a priority I’ve always deemed critical for us developers: the idea of tailoring…
A Note on meiert.com Feeds
There are a number of ways to follow what I write on this website, from a very low volume newsletter for German publications to an enriched account on Google+. The most reliable and focused option, however, is to subscribe to one of this site’s RSS feeds.
The Dilemma of the Kind Person
Imagine a fine human being who has a laudable goal. She wants to become a genuinely, cordially, most truly kind person. So she works on her objective…
On Rationality, and Love
Philosophy can be heart-breaking, or is it the other way around.
On Consciousness
Speaking of which.

New Book: “How to Work on Oneself”
Doubt led me to explore ways to grow, doubt now led me to ask my editor three times whether to publish under a pseudonym: I sketched, in what resembles a fluffy essay, how to learn, how to grow, or—How to Work on Oneself.
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Perhaps my most interesting book: 100 Things I Learned as an Everyday Adventurer (2013). During my time in the States I started trying everything. Everything. Then I noticed that wasn’t only fun, it was also useful. Available at Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.

Perhaps my most personal and also most unusual book: Journey of J. (2015). A freestyle documentary of 557 days of travel across 6 continents and 48 countries. Available at Amazon.