Top all-time · #1619
Heydon Pickering
Personal blog · heydonworks.com/articlewebdesign
Heydon Pickering writes HeydonWorks, a personal blog at heydonworks.com about web and design. Since 2012, 45 different Hacker News readers have linked it 55 times, most often “The Problem with Full Stack”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link HeydonWorks for articles on HTML, CSS, accessibility and front-end web work, including a poisoned-gibberish article and a piece on testing HTML with modern CSS.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The Problem with Full Stack5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-12-03
- Testing HTML with Modern CSS5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-04-09
- Writing Less Code3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-08-17
- Please disable JavaScript to view this site3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-11-28
- Developer Fallacies2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-01-27
- Aria-Controls is Poop2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-08-22
- What Is a Single-Page Application?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-02-26
- Poisoning Well2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-01
- Shit Yourself2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-08
- /nonsense/poisoning-well/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-09-05
What Hacker News says?
"In some cases, however, these banners can serve as trackers themselves, as they engage in a privacy-breaching data exchange before the user even has a chance to opt out." See, e.g., https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.08779v1 Blocking the banners, which generally require Javascript to function, is enough to stop consent, but keeping Javascript enabled still enables and/or strengthens the ability to track. No doubt JS is on…
Comment linking /
on “Brave browser to start blocking annoying cookie consent banners”Submitted Writing Less Code as a story · 583 points
HN discussionScreen readers have and continue to lag in implementing standards designed specifically for accessibility, so I would say they are obviously not sophisticated enough. (One example: https://heydonworks.com/article/aria-controls-is-poop )
Comment linking /article/aria-controls-is-poop
on “Just use a button”Submitted Please disable JavaScript to view this site as a story · 252 points
HN discussioncurrently exploring view-source: https://heydonworks.com/ by deconstructing the rendered source and injecting the output back into the body..
Comment linking /
on “Please disable JavaScript to view this site”Submitted Tetris and The Power Of CSS as a story · 220 points
HN discussionHumans have been refining their gibberish for centuries. I admire your idealism that "the real thing" is coherently different from good gibberish. The poisoned version of the same article is great: https://heydonworks.com/nonsense/poisoning-well/ (I love me some surrealism so gibberish is something I sometimes choose to input into my own model in my head). The scary part of AI is that it shows how crappy most of the…
Comment linking /nonsense/poisoning-well/
on “Poisoning Well”Submitted Poisoning Well as a story · 118 points
HN discussionA link to the poisoned version of the same article: https://heydonworks.com/nonsense/poisoning-well/
Comment linking /nonsense/poisoning-well/
on “Poisoning Well”Submitted Progressive Enhancement Makes Me Sad as a story · 57 points
HN discussionWhen you fork a Github project, you'll have to examine the code to see what it's doing and how. With HTML and CSS, it's mostly visual but you can find improvements on semantics or simplifying what's there. If you can improve performance by rewriting a javascript function into CSS, such as animations, submit a pull request with your suggestions. With Javascript, look for bugs and improve the code that's written. Java…
Comment linking /article/on-writing-less-damn-code
on “Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?”Submitted The Problem with Full Stack as a story · 34 points
HN discussionHe's quoting someone else though he is agreeing with them. The full quote is: > We need to address the undervaluing of HTML and CSS for what it is: gender bias. Even though we wouldn’t have computer science without pioneering women, interloping men have claimed it for themselves. Anything less than ‘real programming’ is now considered trivial, silly, artsy, female. That attitude needs to eat a poisoned ass. And it's…
Comment linking /article/reluctant-gatekeeping-the-problem-with-full-stack
on “Big ol’ ball o’ JavaScript”Submitted Developer Fallacies as a story · 20 points
HN discussionMy two icon font sets (a generic set and a complementary set for app designers) have been hinted using Font Squirrel's algorithm. You may find these of some use: http://www.heydonworks.com/article/an-app-icon-font
Comment linking /article/an-app-icon-font
on “Typicons - free-to-use vector icons embedded in a webfont kit”Submitted Font Hacking as a story · 9 points
HN discussionLook what I found: https://heydonworks.com/article/shit-yourself/
Comment linking /article/shit-yourself/
on “Ask HN: Does anyone know the short story called “shit yourself”?”Submitted The B Element as a story · 4 points
HN discussionRepo: https://github.com/zumerlab/orbit Source file: https://github.com/zumerlab/orbit/blob/main/src/scss/_suppor... Orbit related documentation: https://zumerlab.github.io/orbit-docs/tools/support/ Good to read: https://heydonworks.com/article/testing-html-with-modern-css
Comment linking /article/testing-html-with-modern-css
on “Save time testing HTML and CSS on the fly using only CSS”Submitted Reluctant Gatekeeping: The Problem with Full Stack as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Reluctant Gatekeeping: The Problem with Full Stack as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Practical ARIA examples to enhance your application accessibility as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Testing HTML with Modern CSS as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Testing HTML with Modern CSS as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Is Utility-First CSS? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Marxian Alienation and Web Development as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Writing Less Damn Code (2016) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Reluctant Gatekeeping: The Problem with Full Stack as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Developer Fallacies as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Confessions of a CSS Expert as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
