Top all-time · #2557
Matthias Ott
Personal blog · matthiasott.com/noteswebdesignwriting
Matthias Ott's personal blog at matthiasott.com covers web, design and writing. Since 2017, 30 different Hacker News readers have linked it 35 times, most often “Ad InfiniTum”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-06, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Matthias Ott's notes on Inverted Triangle CSS (ITCSS), a way of ordering stylesheets by specificity, as a fix for cascade and override problems in CSS.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Web design engineer, UX designer, teacher, and speaker – helping teams build websites and digital products with a focus on CSS, accessibility, and performance.
Most-linked posts?
- Ad InfiniTum5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2026-05-21
- Into the Personal-Website-Verse (2019)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-05-13
- WebSpace Invaders3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-02-09
- How I Structure My CSS2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-10-24
- The Right Way to Use Fonts.com Web Fonts2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-06-02
- The New CSS2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-21
- A Conversation About Web Design and Typography with ChatGPT2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-06
What Hacker News says?
> Then again, writing stylesheets is still one of those things where, if you're not careful, everything spirals out of control. Often I'll make changes and wonder why nothing's happening and realize something was overridden by another rule somewhere… It doesn't have to be this way; just write your CSS using Inverted Triangle CSS (ITCSS) [1] and these issues go away. [1]: https://matthiasott.com/notes/how-i-structure…
Comment linking /notes/how-i-structure-my-css
on “It is ok to say "CSS variables" instead of "custom properties"”Submitted Into the Personal-Website-Verse (2019) as a story · 239 points
HN discussionIt's unfortunate Inverted Triangle CSS (ITCSS) isn't more popular. Instead of resisting the cascade, it embraces it and makes it work for the developer. The summary: write your CSS in specificity order [1]: /scss/ ├── 1-settings. <- global settings ├── 2-design-tokens <- fonts, colors, spacing, etc. ├── 3-tools <- Sass mixing, CSS functions, etc. ├── 4-generic <- reset, box sizing, normalize, etc. ├── 5-elements <-…
Comment linking /notes/how-i-structure-my-css
on “Moving away from Tailwind, and learning to structure my CSS”Submitted Ad InfiniTum as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Into the Personal-Website-Verse (2019) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ad Infinitum as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ad Infinitum as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted WebSpace Invaders as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Right Way to Use Fonts.com Web Fonts (2020) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The New CSS as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Conversation About Web Design and Typography with ChatGPT as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 100 Days of Writing as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How I Structure My CSS as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Gall’s Law as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Range as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Right Way to Use Fonts.com Web Fonts as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Into the Personal-Website-Verse as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Resolving CSS Gridlock as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Where are the ads in the biggest change to Search in 25 years as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Ad Infinitum as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted WebSpace Invaders as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Webspace Invaders as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted To Affinity and Beyond as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Free Audio Plugins: Accusonus ERA 6 Bundle as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted WOFF Has Left the Building as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The New CSS as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Conversation with ChatGPT as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Play at Work as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted No Wrong Notes as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lateral Thinking with Withered Tecnology as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
