Charis

Elliot Jay Stocks | A book! A book tour! A book tour newsletter! Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer and author, usually doing something with typography

I can hardly believe the day has come, but I’m beyond thrilled to say that my new book is out! In theory, if you walk into a bookstore today, you should be able to buy or a least order Fine Specimens.

Just published a post on the blog about the book, the book tour, and the book tour newsletter:

Coding Agents & Complexity Budgets $260 in tokens and hundreds of coding agents later.

Yes, person at Cursor did it, and Sanity rebutted it
leerob.com/agents
www.sanity.io/blog/you-sho...

1 million subs! YouTube video by Kevin Powell

A massive congratulations to @kevinpowell.co who’s celebrating 1M subs live, a CSS CHANNEL GOT 1M SUBS. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

www.youtube.com/live/e5JY5Kz...

WINNINGGGGG

5 quick tips for giving better presentations I have been speaking publicly at developer conferences for over a decade and in that time I've seen plenty of other people giving talks. Everyone gives talks...

I've written a post containing some tips for giving better presentations!

None of these tips can replace great content, but they will help you start strong and keep the energy going all the way through to the applause at the end.

philna.sh/blog/2026/03...

Do you have any more tips to share?

Great tips! <3 Ha, yes, the lanyard. Don’t worry, I will make sure you won’t wear that one lol!

"You probably didn't choose your outfit based on the conference colour scheme” WHY NOT PHIL, WHY NOT

The answer is tequila and extra brut champagne. There is a Bryan Johnson in all of us.

Not me asking AI what type of alcohol does the least damage for my sleep.

As you know, browsers and screen readers receive updates frequently. That's why it's important that you reevaluate the best practices you've been following for years every now and then and check if they still apply. Often, things that were true 5 years ago aren't true today.

A clean looking graphic with sharp lines and crisp colour

The same graphic, but muddy and blocky. The previously sharp lines are blurry.

I think it's often overlooked that AVIF is also really good at flat colour & sharp edges.

Don't go straight for a lossless format just because it's the kind of image that would look bad as a JPEG.

Here's an 11kb image as an AVIF, vs JPEG XL.

A heavy metal wheel crank laid against a wrought iron fence among various other free items

*sigh* great. There’s obviously some sort of device nearby I’m gonna need to use this on to compete a puzzle so I gotta lug it to the leftist coffee shop and bookstore with me

You’re making my work too easy. Thank you! 💖

Oh no! 😅 The good news, it’s a lot cheaper on the website.
Will took into it. Thanks!

A lot of websites nowadays need to be measured by their First Contentful Pain

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

Will we reach peak talk length title in 2030? :-D

Manuel…

With a K.

axe-con Digital Accessibility Conference | Deque Join us to learn how to build, test, monitor, and maintain digital accessibility. Hosted on February 24-25, 2026, axe-con is completely free and virtual.

Little reminder that axe-con, organised by @deque.com is this week!!
It's a free online, two days (February 24 25) event, with a very nice line up of talks about accessibility and inclusive design.
Want to learn about accessibility? Register, check them live, or catch the replays!

#Accessibility

Promotional image for an the online Workshops, with Smashing Conference: Designing Better Products Masterclass. It happens from March 23 to April 6 2026, with Stéphanie Walter The material includes an illustration of the cute smashing cat on a boat, a photo of Stéphanie Walter with orange hair and glasses

How do you actually start a product design project?
Not the theory. The "okay, I have a brief, now what?" panic moment.

That's what my Designing Better Products Masterclass is about. I'll teach you a method you can reuse, on your own projects, from scratch!

#UXDesign #ProductDesign #UXResearch

A sad day for rectangles

A great new game: Human in a hurry or AI Slop?

Bin it! LOL

Do you think you would use it this year? What will change that you will start using it?
(I just love cleaning up things I don’t use anymore ;-))

Just tell them you’re getting a coffee at Albert Heijn and see how he responds ;-)

Meanwhile, me committing on main
#lovemylyfe

Promotional banner for “Fronteers Dark Mode” with the headline “Friday night. Frontend. Fronteers Dark Mode!” in bold black text on a bright yellow speech-bubble shape. Below it, the text invites people to join on Friday, October 2nd 2026, at Cinema De Witt in Dordrecht for an intimate evening of frontend talks and community vibes from 3PM to after midnight. The background shows a lively evening courtyard scene outside a cinema, with people sitting at tables, chatting under warm string lights, and a modern glass entrance glowing in the night. Colorful decorative shapes frame the top corners of the image.

+++ Tickets are now on sale for Fronteers Dark Mode 2026! 🥳 +++

📍 Oct 2 · Cinema de Witt, Dordrecht
🕒 3PM – ~midnight
🎤 5 talks
🍽️ 2-course dinner included

Relaxed after-work vibes, long breaks & great conversations.

🎟️ €99
👉 fronteersconf.org

(Fronteers members: €49)

those of you who this resonates with need to 1. identify and connect as an actual community and 2. collaborate with each other directly as humans so not to lose further touch with the anchors that had grounded you before this token anxiety has manifested

Hahaha, ok, just yolo accept it then.
I see am totally doing it wrong :-D

I just don’t understand when senior developers say they have not written a line of code since X, and had just AI do the work.
Are they just doing very junior stuff, is their work easy to automate, or do I just not get it?