The craft of the web

Web development is a craft, but it feels like a lot of folks in the industry don’t actually care about craftsmanship.

Being a good craftsperson means understanding the medium you work with. It means understanding how people use the things you build. It means being able to blend form and function to create things that are functional and resilient and do what they’re supposed to.

By contrast, our industry fetishes tools that do the work for you and remove your need to understand how the web works.

I don’t have a problem with tools in general. The right tool in the right hands can make practicing your craft faster, easier, and more effective. But the wrong tool, or the right tool in the hands of someone without the skills to use it properly, can be catastrophic.

A table saw can help you cut more wood, more quickly, with straight cuts… if you know how to use it. If you don’t, you can create a bunch of uneven boards more quickly that if you used a handsaw.

So is true of tools like Tailwind and React and any other flavor-of-the-month tool.

If you care about the craft of the web and want to become a better craftsperson, you might be interested in the Vanilla JS Academy. Registration for the fall session is open now, and this week, you can join for 30 percent off.