Caspar – caspar.blog

Design by removal

When people solve problems, they typically think: ‘What can I add to make it better?’ We tend not to ask ourselves: what can we take away from it, what can we subtract, what can we remove that might still make something better.
Gabrielle Adams, University of Virginia

I have so many thoughts about this, I can’t even begin to express myself right now. Just wanted to log the finding of this gem (hat tip Lori Sallee). Spent 38 bucks to purchase the original article on Nature, but this summary on Scientific American and the six-minute video below (which I extracted the quote from above) are available for free and more than worth your time.

Let’s just be reminded: removing pieces, more often than not, is free.

[notes]

Happy birthday, Torsten!

Happy birthday, Torsten! 🎂 I don’t remember the exact moment we met, probably because I was experiencing a rush of conference-induced endorphins at the time. But I clearly remember what happened after.

[notes]

WordPress localisation: the difference between x() and translator comments

There are two ways in WordPress to provide context for translatable text (”strings”): the _x() function (along with its related functions), and the /*translators:*/ comment. Their use is described in the Plugin Handbook, but here’s a quick definition of their key differences.

[notes]

Your most impactful Web Vital

Google is about to begin using Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor. So here’s a friendly reminder for everyone that network payload a.k.a. page weight a.k.a. page size is the most impactful metric on your Lighthouse report – even if it’s not deemed a Core Web Vital by Google.

Because of page size, a child in the U.S. – or anywhere – may have to choose between eating lunch or doing homework. Here is why…

[notes]

Facebook 101 for Small Businesses*

There are over 80M small business pages on Facebook, and the company’s data protection official has practically just threatened those that power businesses in the EU could go away tomorrow.