Learning notes 2026-W07

Not All Browser APIs Are “Web” APIs

The interface is standardized. The specification is maintained by the W3C. The docs on MDN are excellent. But the actual implementation? That’s entirely up to the browser vendor.

I was wrong to believe that all Web APIs are private.

Backseat Software

Software didn’t break all at once. It eroded slowly, one reasonable justification at a time.

Each step made sense in isolation, and each step could be defended. Together, they reshaped the priorities of an entire industry. Once software became measurable in this way, it became optimizable in this way. And optimization has a way of eating everything else.

Mike Swanson gives us a short history of enshittified software and guidances to makes them better.

Easy Measures Doing, Simple Measures Understanding

Easy means you can do with little effort. Simple means you can understand what you do with little effort.

More posts