Dax humorously shares his entire journey with CSS, showcasing his coding evolution. Meanwhile, Adam tackles his fitness challenges and reflects on the importance of exercise in his life. The duo cleverly ties sports lessons from American football and F1 into product development discussions. Adam also dives into hard sci-fi literature, sharing thoughts on works like the 'Three-Body Problem' and 'Blade Runner,' while contemplating the significance of context in storytelling. It’s a mix of coding, fitness, and fandom that keeps listeners engaged!
Dax's journey with CSS highlights the evolution from utility classes to a component-based approach, emphasizing maintainability and readability.
Adam's reflection on the importance of exercise serves as a reminder of the physical and mental benefits of an active lifestyle.
The discussion of viewing American football and F1 as product lessons illustrates the application of competitive analysis to various domains.
Deep dives
The Evolution of CSS Usage
The speaker recounts their journey into using CSS, beginning with the creation of a personal library called legos.css in 2015. This library consisted of utility classes that were not very customizable or reusable, as they served to streamline the speaker’s workflow across various projects. From 2016 to early 2020, they enjoyed the benefits of a utility-first approach similar to Tailwind, which made development fast and productive. However, as they moved into a role managing a team responsible for building a design system, they became exposed to new styling methodologies, allowing them to evaluate multiple approaches and refine their preferences.
Transitioning to Component-Based Styling
In early 2020, the speaker's team was tasked with creating a design system that would be utilized both internally and externally, exposing the speaker to various styles of CSS. They ultimately favored a component-based approach that integrated styling closely with the frameworks used for UI development, achieving a cleaner markup. This method provided a productive workflow while maintaining readability and organizational clarity in the code. Their experience reflects a balance between leveraging reusable components and ensuring the design system was easily maintainable for future development.
Revisiting Raw CSS in 2024
After years of using libraries and frameworks with varying levels of abstraction, the speaker decided to explore raw CSS in 2024, hoping to re-evaluate its relevance and functionality. They discovered that many features previously lacking in raw CSS had become standardized, allowing for a more effective and nuanced coding experience. Particularly compelling was a pattern they found in a design system called winnie ui, which demonstrated how to implement design elements purely with CSS. By coupling their newfound appreciation for CSS with practical applications, they began to enjoy writing raw CSS once again.
Leveraging Selector Patterns
The speaker shared insights on utilizing advanced CSS selectors, particularly emphasizing the 'has' selector to create dynamic styles based on element content. For instance, by using 'has' in conjunction with components, they could change styles such as padding dynamically, which previously required JavaScript logic. This approach enabled them to simplify their codebase and decrease reliance on additional classes, thereby enhancing performance and maintainability. By offloading more complexity to CSS, the speaker found they could achieve cleaner component structures with less overhead.
The Benefits of Naming and Readability
During their exploration of raw CSS, the speaker addressed the challenge of naming conventions for various elements within their projects. Though initially daunting, they found that adhering to a systematic naming strategy ultimately enhances code maintainability and readability over time. They pointed out that the upfront effort of naming elements strategically pays off, especially when revisiting code months later. By reducing the reliance on arbitrary class names and instead using meaningful, descriptive identifiers, the speaker created a more intuitive understanding of the document structure.
Dax recites every line of CSS he's ever written, what it's like teaching your partner to code, Adam relearns the importance of exercise and is mad about it, American football and F1 as product lessons, and Adam's getting into hard sci fi.
