Adam Wathan, founder of Tailwind, joins Ian & Aaron to discuss upcoming Tailwind Catalyst UI kit, hiring challenges, rewriting Tailwind in Rust for speed optimization, and the importance of work and having dedicated time for exploring new ideas. They also discuss balancing work and family life in the programming field.
Catalyst is an upcoming UI kit for Tailwind CSS that aims to provide a fully componentized and connected library for building application interfaces.
The team plans to hire three new team members in the coming months to work across different areas of the company and cover for each other.
Tailwind CSS plans to rewrite a portion of its codebase in Rust to improve performance and speed, leveraging Rust's ability to handle parallel tasks.
The team has discussed the idea of creating a marketplace for Tailwind CSS, offering a range of components, templates, and resources to users.
Deep dives
Catalyst: An Optimized UI Kit for Tailwind CSS
Catalyst is an upcoming UI kit for Tailwind CSS that aims to provide a fully componentized and connected library for building application interfaces. The project has been in the works for several years, with the initial plan to create templates and expand to application interfaces. The team encountered challenges with existing libraries, which led to the decision to migrate everything to their own Headless UI library. The goal is to create a UI kit that is easy to use, optimally fast, and fully compatible with Tailwind CSS. The project is expected to be released next week and will initially include form components, dialogues, and drop-down positioning. The team plans to continue improving and developing Headless UI alongside Catalyst.
Hiring Plans for the Near Future
The team is planning to hire three new team members in the coming months, including an engineering lead, a technical designer, and an additional engineer. The goal is to find individuals who can work across different areas of the company and cover for each other, rather than having separate teams for different projects. They aim to bring on individuals who can contribute to the hiring process, mentorship, coaching, and technical talent. The hiring process will begin in January, and the goal is to find people who are dedicated, have experience, and are compatible with the company's values.
Rust Integration and Simplification of Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS plans to rewrite a portion of its codebase in Rust to improve performance and speed. They are leveraging Rust's ability to handle parallel tasks and optimized parsing of files to enhance the efficiency of the Tailwind CSS library. The Rust integration is focused on the section of code responsible for finding class names in files and will allow for faster processing and better scalability. The team also envisions simplifying Tailwind CSS by reducing the amount of configuration and incorporating more features into CSS itself, making it more accessible and straightforward for developers to use.
Marketplace Plans and Simplification of Tailwind CSS Configuration
The team has discussed the idea of creating a marketplace for Tailwind CSS, offering a range of components, templates, and resources to users. The marketplace would provide additional options for customization and convenience, offering a curated selection of high-quality resources for developers. Additionally, there are plans to simplify the configuration process by moving more of it to CSS itself. This would involve using CSS syntax for specifying template paths and overrides, thereby reducing the need for complex JavaScript configuration files. The aim is to make Tailwind CSS more intuitive and streamlined for developers.
The Importance of a Tailwind Marketplace
The speaker discusses the idea behind a tailwind marketplace. One motivation for creating a marketplace is to avoid competition with individuals who build with tailwind and instead provide a platform to promote their work. The speaker also believes that a marketplace could attract more designers into the tailwind community. The marketplace would showcase tailwind templates from trusted partners, allowing for a revenue-sharing arrangement.
Challenges and Considerations for the Tailwind Marketplace
One challenge in creating a tailwind marketplace is the need to balance promoting other designers' work without cannibalizing sales of their own products. The speaker also discusses the concept of a theme forest-like marketplace but expresses skepticism about its potential success. Additionally, the speaker reflects on the importance of finishing projects and the desire to maintain a balance between work and personal interests.
Exploring Potential Business Expansion
The podcast episode delves into the possibility of hiring someone to lead the commercial side of the business, allowing the speaker to focus more on the open-source side of tailwind. This approach could involve hiring designers to create templates and pursue collaborations, enabling the speaker to make enhancements to tailwind simultaneously. The episode also touches on the notion of building tailor-made websites and exploring the potential of AI-driven tailwind design generators.
Ian & Aaron are joined by Adam Wathan, founder of Tailwind, to discuss everything from the upcoming Tailwind Catalyst UI kit to hiring to a hypothetical Tailwind marketplace & more.
