1
Using AI to write better code more slowly
A lot of people seem convinced that the point of AI coding is to write low-quality code as fast as possible. Spew out barely-passable slop, open massive PRs,…
Nolan Lawson
Software and other dark arts, by Nolan Lawson
- Popular posts
- 18
- Total points
- 7,113
- HN comments
- 4,986
- Rank
- #129 personal
Visit nolanlawson.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Apr 2014 – Nov 2026
Web & Frontend 11Software Engineering 10Tools & Productivity 2Society, Policy & Culture 2Life, Learning & Writing 2Design & UX 2
2
We mourn our craft
I didn’t ask for this and neither did you. I didn’t ask for a robot to consume every blog post and piece of code I ever wrote and parrot it back so that some…
3
Safari is the new IE
Update: This post represents my views before I joined the Microsoft Edge team, and before I got involved with browsers or web standards in general. I leave it…
4
Learn how modern JavaScript frameworks work by building one
In my day job, I work on a JavaScript framework (LWC). And although I’ve been working on it for almost three years, I still feel like a dilettante. When I read…
5
The balance has shifted away from SPAs
There’s a feeling in the air. A zeitgeist. SPAs are no longer the cool kids they once were 10 years ago. Hip new frameworks like Astro, Qwik, and Elder.js are…
6
The AI cost of JavaScript frameworks
One of my pet peeves with the web development community is that so many of the decisions we make are vibes-based. Frameworks are “blazing fast,” tools will…
7
The collapse of complex software
In 1988, the anthropologist Joseph Tainter published a book called The Collapse of Complex Societies. In it, he described the rise and fall of great…
8
Why don't more developers “use the platform”?
For years, advocates for web standards, performance, and accessibility have implored web developers to “use the platform”. I’ve often been one of those…
9
The fate of "small" open source
By far the most popular npm package I’ve ever written is blob-util, which is ~10 years old and still gets 5+ million weekly downloads. It’s a small collection…
10
Web components are okay
Every so often, the web development community gets into a tizzy about something, usually web components. I find these fights tiresome, but I also see them as a…
11
My love-hate affair with technology
Ten years ago I would have considered myself someone who was excited about new technology. I always had the latest smartphone, I would read the reviews of new…
12
The asteroid currently hitting front end web development
A lot of the educators I admire in the frontend web space seem to be either bowing out or dialing back their efforts: Axel Rauschmayer, Salma Alam-Naylor, Josh…
13
Fuite: a tool for finding memory leaks in web apps
Debugging memory leaks in web apps is hard. The tooling exists, but it’s complicated, cumbersome, and often doesn’t answer the simple question: Why is my app…
14
Selfish reasons for building accessible UIs
All web developers know, at some level, that accessibility is important. But when push comes to shove, it can be hard to prioritize it above a bazillion other…
15
Mastodon and the challenges of abuse in a federated system
This post will probably only make sense to those deeply involved in Mastodon and the fediverse. So if that’s not your thing, or you’re not interested in issues…
16
Skeptical of rewriting JavaScript tools in "faster" languages
I’ve written a lot of JavaScript. I like JavaScript. And more importantly, I’ve built up a set of skills in understanding, optimizing, and debugging JavaScript…
17
My talk on CSS runtime performance
A few months ago, I gave a talk on CSS performance at performance.now in Amsterdam. The recording is available online: (You can also read the slides.) This is…
18
Web SQL Database: In Memoriam
All signs seem to indicate that Apple will finally ship IndexedDB in Safari 7.1 sometime this year. This means that Safari, the last holdout against IndexedDB,…