General Musings with Kevin Powell

If you’re learning something new and you’re putting in a lot of work, one of the best ways to supercharge your learning is to take notes. I know a lot of people might scoff at that idea because they see note taking as a waste of time, but in this episode I talk about how there are ways of doing it that can not only be effective, but which can supercharge your learning.What I’ve been up to this week: The problem with mobile-first CSS Subgrid & Container Queries change how we can create layouts How flexbox and grid are like owning different types of shoesOther awesome stuff around the web: Reality Check #1: Building out a furniture site from DribbbleFind me elsewhere on the web: My Newsletter This podcast’s YouTube channel My Primary YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

Online courses are awesome, but it’s really easy to get started with one only to let it drop by the way side after completing 20% of it, or actually finish one, but not feel like you learned as much as you were hoping to.In this episode, I explore some tips on how to get the most from online courses, and how to help make sure you actually get all the way to through them as well!What I’ve been up to this week: I asked people to make this simple layout and was surprised by the results A simple approach to layouts when going from design to code :nth-child has a super power most people don’t know aboutOther awesome stuff around the web: Sara Soueidan’s Practical AccessibilityFind me elsewhere on the web: My Newsletter This podcast’s YouTube channel My Primary YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

You follow a few tutorials and feel pretty good with the small projects you’ve been able to build. Then you have a cool idea for your own project, you open up VS Code, and you have no idea where to start.This is a common problem, and it happens because understanding something is not the same thing as being able to do something.Other awesome stuff around the web: Naming Variables in CSS by Jonathan DallasWhat I’ve been up to this week: How to create and style lists with HTML & CSS Simplify your code with this underused pseudo-class Using CSS custom properties like this is a wasteFind me elsewhere on the web: My Newsletter My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

This week, I talked about whether or not I can break the curse of every conference that I get invited to being cancelled 😅. So far, I’m four for four, but I have a chance to break it to start off 2024, when I’ll be speaking at THAT Conference in Rolling Rock, Texas! Also, I'm still a little sick, sorry if I'm talking a bit funny 🤧What I’ve been up to this week: The State of HTML 5 tips to getting better at CSS Taking on a CSS Battle The easy way to make sense of complex selectorsOther awesome stuff around the web: Maxi Ferreira’s Astro + View Transitions demo with a 3D model of a person walking that persists across pages Codrops article by Igor Penaque exploring the basics of View Transitions with AstroFind me elsewhere on the web: My Newsletter My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

Intrinsic Web Design, or Intrinsic Layouts, is a way we can approach writing our CS where we’re handing off a lot of the control the browser. That doesn’t mean we’re letting go of all the control though, but instead that we’re giving the browser hints on what we’d like to happen and letting it do the hard work for us.What I’ve been up to this week: How to make your own frontend roadmap Create a progressively-enhanced infinite horizontal scroll animation The border-radius feature most people don’t know about CSS Mastery with Kevin Powell: Unveiling Uncommon Knowledge (The Code Ryan Podcast)Other awesome stuff around the web: Contextual Spacing For Intrinsic Web Design by Stephanie Eckles Styling the Intrisic Web with Cascade Layers & Container Queries by Miriam SuzanneFind me elsewhere on the web: My Newsletter My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

CSS is different from other languages, and while that can seem frustrating and leads to a lot of people complaining about it, there’s a good reason that it is the way it is. In this episode, I explore how and why it’s different, and how we can overcome the frustrations we run into with CSS by adopting the right mindset when authoring our stylesheets.What I’ve been up to this week: A quick guide to CSS focus states I just wasted a day on this code, was it worth it? Is this the strangest CSS solution out there? Choosing between flexbox and grid (not from this week, but mentioned during the podcast)Other awesome stuff around the web: The State of HTML survey Jen Simmon’s talk Everything You Know About Web Design Just Changed Jen Simmon’s talk Designing Intrinsic LayoutsFind me elsewhere on the web: My Newsletter My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

I'd love to know what you think of this longer version of the podcast: Cast your votes right here.As for the episode itself, in this one I talk about how people sometimes romantisize the idea of freelancing, and sometimes get into web development with the idea of becoming a freelancer, without realizing everything it entails.What I’ve been up to this week: CSS Confetti explosions 3D card hover effect CSS Gradients > SVGs for patternsOther awesome stuff around the web: Using REM Doesn't Make Your Website Responsive - Here's Why by Caio Marcellus Cabral Best Practices When using Fonts on the Web on Joy Of CodeMy NewsletterMy YouTube ChannelTwitterThreads

In this episode, I talk about how I use Notion to keep track of what I’m up to, both for the bigger picture of my content calendar, and also a daily to-do list, and also how I managed to get this system to stick after trying, and failing, to use it several times.What I’ve been up to this week: Beginner’s guide to styling text with CSS Bring a smile to your users’ faces with a confetti celebration The scrollbar control you didn’t know you neededOther awesome stuff around the web: Technical SEO for DevelopersWhere else you can find me: My Newsletter My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

I work from home, and with my home-office being the same place I use for my downtime, it can be a little tricky to make that separation at times. In this episode, I talk about how I use virtual desktops to help create a bit of a different environment for what tasks I'm doing, which I find has really helped me make that separation, and also avoid general distractions. My Newsletter My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads

This is the second episode of an experimental podcast where I use the AI voice-to-text service ElevenLabs to generate audio based on the general musings section of my weekly newsletter.In this one, I talk about why we can fall into a rut, or lose motivation, which can lead to things like burnout, how important it is to realize when we're heading that way, and also how I deal with it. My YouTube Channel Twitter Threads ElevenLabs (this is an affiliate link, you will not pay more if you sign up, but it will help support me a little bit!)