48 min listen
Creating CodePen, Tackling Tailwind, and Keeping It Simple with Chris Coyier
Creating CodePen, Tackling Tailwind, and Keeping It Simple with Chris Coyier
ratings:
Length:
69 minutes
Released:
Mar 3, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Ten years after launching CodePen, Co-Founder Chris Coyier still thinks of his company as a scrappy startup. That’s because CodePen, an app and social community for testing and creating web projects, still feels like a company striving to prove itself in a world of jaded developers. Nevertheless, CodePen has successfully reached developers as they’re learning to code.
In this episode, Chris talks with Chuck and Robbie about his online opinions that align and differ from Robbie’s, the evolution of CodePen, how they’ve managed to monetize, the advantages of sticking with CSS, why blogging is like grinding, and Chris’ parenting advice for new dads.
Key Takeaways
[02:23] - A whiskey review.
[11:10] - The beauty of CodePen and a brief chat about Tampa.
[16:11] - The niche that sets CodePen apart.
[18:03] - Why going serverless is a wonderful thing.
[23:11] - How CodePen has evolved and how they have monetized.
[25:06] - How CodePen uses information for good.
[27:16] - How CSS-Tricks came to be and Chris’ other digital passions.
[38:38] - What Chris thinks of Tailwind.
[44:59] - What new things are coming to CSS.
[49:42] - Chris’ dad advice for Robbie.
[57:31] - A Rick Steves whatnot, complaints about Italian food, and why deadlines work.
Quotes
[23:59] - “Not a day has gone by, pretty much in the 10 years we’ve been running this, where there isn’t some kind of jaw-dropping, interesting creation on CodePen.” ~ @chriscoyier
[45:25] - “If you just let CSS be, just use the language, you get all this stuff. But if you have to wait for an abstraction to come later, maybe it never does arrive or maybe it comes in a way that’s too abstracted that’s not all that useful. There’s an advantage to just sticking to the core language.” ~ @chriscoyier
[49:28] - “The rule is, just leave it alone. Do not open up somebody else’s thing and reorder their inputs and commit that. Because that is just noise, and it doesn’t matter.” ~ @chriscoyier
Links
Chris on Twitter
Discord
New Riff Single Barrel Bourbon
Sagamore Spirit
Jack Daniel’s
Jim Beam
CodePen
Sass
Next.js
JavaScript
Dart
Bitcoin
Eyeframe
Rust
Go
Acquia
Ruby
VS Code
CodePen PRO Plans
The CodePen Spark (CodePen newsletter)
CSS-Tricks
WordPress
How to Fetch and Parse RSS Feeds in JavaScript
Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Work-Life Balance, React, and Why Accessibility is Everything with Melanie Sumner
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo Switch
Oculus Quest 2
Workrooms
Rec Room on Oculus Quest
Pictionary
Oculus Guardian
Phasmophobia
Tailwind CSS
National Graphic
Codebase
React
JSX
Chrome DevTools
Netflix
The Red Hen
Rick Steves
Rick Steves, Cool Dude.
Europe Through The Back Door
Rick Steves’ Europe TV Show
VSCode All Autocomplete
GitHub
GitHub Copilot
Connect with our hosts
Robbie Wagner
Chuck Carpenter
Ship Shape
Subscribe and stay in touch
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Podcasts
Whiskey Web and Whatnot
Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants
This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.
In this episode, Chris talks with Chuck and Robbie about his online opinions that align and differ from Robbie’s, the evolution of CodePen, how they’ve managed to monetize, the advantages of sticking with CSS, why blogging is like grinding, and Chris’ parenting advice for new dads.
Key Takeaways
[02:23] - A whiskey review.
[11:10] - The beauty of CodePen and a brief chat about Tampa.
[16:11] - The niche that sets CodePen apart.
[18:03] - Why going serverless is a wonderful thing.
[23:11] - How CodePen has evolved and how they have monetized.
[25:06] - How CodePen uses information for good.
[27:16] - How CSS-Tricks came to be and Chris’ other digital passions.
[38:38] - What Chris thinks of Tailwind.
[44:59] - What new things are coming to CSS.
[49:42] - Chris’ dad advice for Robbie.
[57:31] - A Rick Steves whatnot, complaints about Italian food, and why deadlines work.
Quotes
[23:59] - “Not a day has gone by, pretty much in the 10 years we’ve been running this, where there isn’t some kind of jaw-dropping, interesting creation on CodePen.” ~ @chriscoyier
[45:25] - “If you just let CSS be, just use the language, you get all this stuff. But if you have to wait for an abstraction to come later, maybe it never does arrive or maybe it comes in a way that’s too abstracted that’s not all that useful. There’s an advantage to just sticking to the core language.” ~ @chriscoyier
[49:28] - “The rule is, just leave it alone. Do not open up somebody else’s thing and reorder their inputs and commit that. Because that is just noise, and it doesn’t matter.” ~ @chriscoyier
Links
Chris on Twitter
Discord
New Riff Single Barrel Bourbon
Sagamore Spirit
Jack Daniel’s
Jim Beam
CodePen
Sass
Next.js
JavaScript
Dart
Bitcoin
Eyeframe
Rust
Go
Acquia
Ruby
VS Code
CodePen PRO Plans
The CodePen Spark (CodePen newsletter)
CSS-Tricks
WordPress
How to Fetch and Parse RSS Feeds in JavaScript
Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Work-Life Balance, React, and Why Accessibility is Everything with Melanie Sumner
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo Switch
Oculus Quest 2
Workrooms
Rec Room on Oculus Quest
Pictionary
Oculus Guardian
Phasmophobia
Tailwind CSS
National Graphic
Codebase
React
JSX
Chrome DevTools
Netflix
The Red Hen
Rick Steves
Rick Steves, Cool Dude.
Europe Through The Back Door
Rick Steves’ Europe TV Show
VSCode All Autocomplete
GitHub
GitHub Copilot
Connect with our hosts
Robbie Wagner
Chuck Carpenter
Ship Shape
Subscribe and stay in touch
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Podcasts
Whiskey Web and Whatnot
Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants
This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.
Released:
Mar 3, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit, EmberConf, Next.js, Porsche vs Mustang: This week we try Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit, discuss EmberConf and Next.js and talk about Porsches vs Mustangs. by Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Web Development, Neat