need to get outside more
Notes
2 itemsOn Impermanence in Design Systems
Design systems are living documents pretending to be finished products. The moment you declare a component 'done' is the moment it starts decaying.
The best systems acknowledge this: they version, they deprecate, they evolve. The worst ones calcify — frozen in the amber of a Figma file nobody updates.
Tools
2 itemsCSS Grid Generator
cssgrid-generator.netlify.appVisual CSS grid builder — drag to define areas, copy the code.
Patterns
1 itemPrompt Layering
Stack context-setting prompts before the actual task to improve output quality.
Failures
1 itemThe Blueprint Color Trap
Spent three hours building a perfect cyan-on-navy blueprint aesthetic only to realize the contrast ratio was 2.8:1 — well below WCAG AA.
The fix wasn't to abandon the palette but to reserve the low-contrast cyan for decorative elements (grid lines, borders) and use a lighter tint for actual text content. Decorative elements don't need to meet contrast requirements.
Lesson: Test contrast ratios before falling in love with a palette. The aesthetic and accessibility aren't enemies — they just need different roles.
Best Practices
1 itemSemantic HTML First
Write the HTML before touching CSS. If the page doesn't make sense without styles, the markup is wrong.
Workflows
1 itemGit Worktree Parallel Dev
bash
git worktree add ../feature-branch feature-branch
# work in ../feature-branch independently
git worktree remove ../feature-branchUse git worktrees to work on multiple branches simultaneously without stashing.