1. THE WHEEL IS SPINNING,
BUT THE HAMSTER IS DEAD…
CHRIS HEILMANN (﴾@CODEPO8)﴿, SMARTWEB, BUCHAREST, SEPTEMBER 2015

2. HI THERE!

3. HOW ARE YOU?

4. I assume that after a full day
of great talks and meeting
people who work in the
same space as you,
THINGS ARE GREAT!

5. Inspired
Fascinated
Excited
Hopeful
… a bit overwhelmed?
YOU PROBABLY ARE

6. GOOD!
HOLD ON TO THIS
FEELING!

7. DON’T GO BACK
INTO THE OTHER
MODE THAT IS VERY
COMMON THESE
DAYS…

8. THAT FEELING THAT
YOU DON’T
BELONG…

9. THAT FEELING THAT
YOU’RE NOT GOOD
ENOUGH…

10. THE FEELING THAT
YOU CAN’T
CONTRIBUTE
ANYTHING USEFUL…

11. THE FEELING THAT
YOU SHOULD
APOLOGISE FOR
NOT USING THE
NEWEST AND
COOLEST…

12. DO NOT GO THERE -‐ AGAIN

13. BECAUSE…
…IT IS ALL BULLSHIT WE TELL OURSELVES

14. A LOT OF THE STRESS WE
FEEL IS HOME-‐MADE.
WE DRAG ONE ANOTHER
DOWN.

15. WE TURNED
ENGINEERING INTO A
RELIGION -‐ WITH ALL THE
DOGMA AND HOLY WARS
THAT COMES WITH.

16. WE EXPECT
EVERYBODY TO GET
PURE HAPPINESS
FROM CODING…
https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/597276242887348224

17. WORKING AT A PACE
NO HUMAN SHOULD
WORK IN…

18. WHILST BELIEVING
THAT TECHNICAL
INNOVATION WILL
MAKE A BETTER
WORLD FOR
HUMANS…
Humans need not apply!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-‐S557XQU

19. WE CELEBRATE OUR
SOCIAL INEPTITUDE IN
OUR HIRING AND
TRAINING…

20. FIZZING WITH THE
BUZZ…
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FizzBuzzTest
The "Fizz-‐Buzz test" is an interview
question designed to help filter out
the 99.5% of programming job
candidates who can't seem to
program their way out of a wet
paper bag.
"Write a program that prints the
numbers from 1 to 100. But for
multiples of three print “Fizz” instead
of the number and for the multiples
of five print “Buzz”. For numbers
which are multiples of both three
and five print “FizzBuzz”."
“

21. FIZZING WITH THE
BUZZ…
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FizzBuzzTest
The "Fizz-‐Buzz test" is an interview
question designed to help filter out
the 99.5% of programming job
candidates who can't seem to
program their way out of a wet
paper bag.
"Write a program that prints the
numbers from 1 to 100. But for
multiples of three print “Fizz” instead
of the number and for the multiples
of five print “Buzz”. For numbers
which are multiples of both three
and five print “FizzBuzz”."
“

22. THE HAMMERS WE
WIELD…
https://twitter.com/estellevw/status/645266254459088897
http://codepen.io/estelle/pen/wKWwey

23. WE COMPLAIN ABOUT A LACK
OF DIVERSITY AND INVITING
ENVIRONMENTS…
…AND RUN HACKDAYS
TO SOLVE THAT PROBLEM!

24. WE TEACH WORKING
FOR A HI-‐FIDELITY
MEDIUM USING
HYPOTHETICAL
EXAMPLES…

25. AND HAVE AN
OVERWHELMING
AMOUNT OF
RESOURCES WITH
DISAGREEING ADVICE.
https://medium.com/@_cmdv_/i-‐want-‐to-‐
learn-‐javascript-‐in-‐2015-‐e96cd85ad225

26. THERE ARE SO MUCH
BETTER WAYS AT OUR
DISPOSAL…
http://worrydream.com/#!/LearnableProgramming
Brett Victor:
Learnable Programming (﴾2012)﴿

27. SO CELEBRATE THE
CHOICES YOU HAVE
AND FIND YOUR WAY
OF LEARNING WHAT
MAKES A DIFFERENCE
TO YOU!

28. TRUST IN YOUR
ABILITY TO LEARN!

29. NOT EVERYTHING IS
DOOM AND GLOOM
AND US RUNNING
OUT OF TIME…

30. WHAT WE’RE
EXPERIENCING IS
GROWING PAINS…

31. WE’RE FEELING
THREATENED BY
NATURAL EVOLUTION
AND CHANGE.

32. YES, THE WEB AND
OUR TECHNOLOGIES
NEED TO EVOLVE AND
CATCH UP WITH NEW
DEMANDS…

33. BUT THIS DOESN’T
MEAN WE ALL NEED
TO TOSS AWAY ALL WE
HAVE ACHIEVED AND
DEMANDED…

34. LET’S GO BACK TO
WHEN I STARTED AS A
WEB DEVELOPER.

35. I REMEMBER WHEN
THIS WAS ALL
FIELDS…

36. I REMEMBER WHEN
THIS WAS ALL
FIELDS…

37. THEN HTML5
HAPPENED…
• required attribute
• new field types: date,
color, tel, number…

38. THEN HTML5
HAPPENED…
• required attribute
• new field types: date,
color, tel, number…
don’t call me!

39. HOW EXCELLENT IS
THIS?
✓ Form validation
✓ Pattern definitions
✓ Automatic filling by
browsers
✓ Hi-‐Fi interaction

40. SOLVING A FEW SMALL
SCREEN INTERACTION
SPECIFIC ISSUES…

41. SELECTING A VALUE
FROM A MASSIVE
LIST IS NOT FUN…

42. YOU CAN,
HOWEVER, TYPE
AND KIND OF
AUTOCOMPLETE…

43. IN HTML5, WE GOT
A DATALIST FOR
THAT…

44. BY UNDERSTANDING
HTML5 PARSING, WE
CAN HAVE BOTH…
https://adactio.com/journal/4272

45. HTML5 BROWSERS
GET THE DATALIST
FUNCTIONALITY…

46. OLDER BROWSERS
GET A SENSIBLE
INTERFACE…

47. ALL THIS IS POSSIBLE
BECAUSE OF THE
FAULT TOLERANT
NATURE OF HTML
(﴾AND CSS)﴿
on('error', () => {
shrug();
line.next();
});

48. WE DEMANDED THIS
NOT TO GO AWAY!

49. AND YET, WE FORFEIT
THIS FEATURE EVERY
SINGLE DAY…

50. …AND CELEBRATE
SOLUTIONS THAT ARE
PRETTY MUCH
UNRELIABLE.

51. WHY DO WE DO THIS?

52. THE ANSWER IS
SIMPLE:
WE FEEL THAT WE
NEED TO BE IN
CONTROL.

53. WITH JAVASCRIPT, WE ARE IN CONTROL AND WE
CAN FIX ALMOST ANYTHING.
=

54. THE PROBLEM IS THAT
US IN CONTROL ALSO
MEANS US RESPONSIBLE
FOR THE OUTCOME…

55. WE FORFEIT ALL THE
BEAUTIFUL AND
IMPORTANT THINGS
BROWSERS ALREADY DO
FOR US…

56. FOR THE SAKE OF
DEVELOPER
CONVENIENCE AND A
PERCEIVED CHANCE
OF CONTROL.

57. I’M NOT SAYING NOT TO
USE JAVASCRIPT -‐ FAR
FROM IT.

58. BUT I BEG OF YOU TO
CONSIDER WHAT YOU DO
AND STOP RELYING ON
MAGICAL SOLUTIONS.

59. THERE ARE A FEW
REASONS FOR THAT:
• The web is a mess. The average web
page creeps up to 2MB with hundreds
of dependencies.
• Outdated frameworks and helper
libraries hinder browser interoperability.
The quick fix of today is the part of the
landfill of tomorrow.
• By trying to control the web we
created parallel solutions for desktop
and mobile -‐ each of which
disappointing.

60. CHECK WHAT YOU
BUILT AND FIX IT
FORWARD…
PLEASE?
http://dev.modern.ie/tools/staticscan/
https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/static-‐code-‐scan

61. THE WEB IS WORLD-‐WIDE
AND WE’RE GETTING
FRUSTRATED FOR NOT
DELIVERING WHAT THE
VALLEY WANTS…

62. THE HYPE IS MOVING
AWAY FROM THE WEB
TOWARDS MORE
CONTROLLED
ENVIRONMENTS.
THE WEB CAN’T
COMPETE AS IT IS
AGAINST ITS NATURE.

63. THE NEXT USERS ARE
NOT THOSE WHO
COMPLAIN THE WEB
IS NOT AS GOOD AS
NATIVE APPS…
https://vimeo.com/139312920
https://brucelawson.github.io/talks/2015/velocity
Bruce Lawson at SOTB 2015

64. PROXY BROWSERS
ARE A BIG THING
THERE…
https://vimeo.com/130296585
https://speakerdeck.com/tkadlec/better-‐by-‐
proxy-‐at-‐mobilism-‐2015
Tim Kadlec: Better by Proxy

65. WE’RE ADDICTED TO
MAKING THINGS GENERIC…
http://josdejong.com/blog/2015/01/06/code-reuse/

66. RELEASING OPEN
SOURCE SOLUTIONS
IS NOT RELEASING
FREE CODE AND
HOPING PEOPLE FIX
AND MAINTAIN FOR
YOU…
The toxic side of free by Remy Sharp (﴾@rem)﴿
https://remysharp.com/2015/09/14/jsbin-toxic-part-1

67. OPEN SOURCE IS FREE
-‐ AS IN PUPPY!

68. THE WEB IS A GIFT
TO US ALL, AND YOU
CAN CONTRIBUTE IN
MANY WAYS.
ALL OF US PLAYING
ON THE BLEEDING
EDGE IS MISSING
THE POINT.

69. BE ALONG FOR THE
RIDE…

70. SOMETIMES NOT
CONTROLLING
THINGS IS WHEN
THE FUN STARTS…

71. We all have different desires and needs,
but if we don’t discover what we want
from ourselves and what we stand for, we
will live passively and unfulfilled.
– Bill Watterson

72. SO BE ACTIVE!
✓ Improve your basic skills, catch up on
what’s possible. caniuse.com is a
riveting read!
✓ Start helping people who are not up to
date. You start teaching and you end
up learning.
✓ Report problems, demand support for
basic features, not only for the hot,
new (﴾half-‐baked)﴿ ones.
✓ Reach out beyond our echo chamber
if you want to reach people who need
the knowledge you have.

73. THANK YOU!
CHRIS HEILMANN
@CODEPO8