notes on building for the web — the version i'd give a teammate, not a listicle.
Images are the heaviest thing on most pages, and the standard advice can make them slower. The format rules, the srcset maths, and the lazy-loading trap.
A web font can hide your text for three seconds before a single word renders. What font-display really controls, and why preload is the second fix, not the first.
An LLM can't open a file, run a test, or fix its own mistake. The harness is the loop that lets it — here's the whole cycle, with a playground you can pull apart.
Switching to HTTP/2 can make mobile slower. The reason sits one layer below HTTP, in a place your server config can't see — and it's also why HTTP/3 isn't the free upgrade everyone assumes.
Move one script tag into the head and a working DOM lookup starts returning null. The full path from raw bytes to painted pixels, and where JavaScript cuts into it.
things i didn't write but keep coming back to.
earendil.com · Aug 2026
blog.logrocket.com · Jul 2026