Bryan Braun
Making things and sharing what I learn.
- Posts
- 514 from 4 Nov 2010 to 20 Oct 2026
- Posting
- monthly (10 in the last year)
- Kind
- personal blog
- Feed
- https://www.bryanbraun.com/rss.xml
2026 9
2025 12
- Raise your standards for important things; lower them for unimportant things
- SolidGoldMagikarp
- Links #13
- Some thoughts on scaling code review
- A new job, a new life
- Lessons learned from five years of running a family Minecraft server
- Waiting is risky
- Links #12
- Breaking down circular dependencies in JavaScript
- Technology you don't have to think about
- You can't fix a problem you don't understand
- Made in 2024
2024 13
- Links #11
- Unusual Git IDs
- Setting up your /now page with an RSS feed
- Before you buy a domain name, first check to see if it's haunted
- One Million Checkboxes and the fear of viral success
- Links #10
- Capability makes your life simpler
- Goodbye Evernote, Hello Obsidian
- The flood of AI website builders
- Why we prefer computers over consoles when introducing kids to gaming
- There's never going to be time
- Links #9
- Made in 2023
2023 18
- Everyone has a Substack and it's great
- Doubling down on RSS
- Rejecting the algorithm
- I needed to be happier
- Let's Get Creative
- Links #8
- 200 lbs
- Good eating habits
- Things I wish someone would have told me about configuring VSCode
- Daily inspiration for iOS users
- The stories we tell ourselves
- Augmented Development with AI
- Links #7
- Microcontributions
- AIs can write for us but will we actually want them to?
- Afraid of AI
- There's a lot to like about the Web Share API
- Made in 2022
2022 13
- The best part of pair-programming is when things go wrong
- Six Years of Jekyll
- Links #6
- Lunch Lessons
- Scratch is a big deal
- Bill Watterson on creating a meaningful life
- From Sparkbox to Formidable
- Links #5
- Web developers don't use enough spreadsheets
- ReactJS refs and third-party libraries
- My first program
- Made in 2021
- Lessons learned from Advent of Code
2021 14
- The right kind of thing
- I keep making things out of checkboxes
- Links #4
- A minimalist development workflow using ES modules and esinstall
- Allowing inline scripts in your Content Security Policy using a hash
- Summer updates
- The rivers we swim in
- Links #3
- A ripple animation in JavaScript
- Infinitely nested iFrames
- How I boosted my domain authority on accident
- Links #2
- The Powder Toy
- Made in 2020
2020 23
- When reading stops helping
- Always be designing
- Links #1
- Using the shrug emoticon in markdown
- ES modules in production: my experience so far
- The Power of a Link
- Gridmaster: Closing Thoughts
- How searching for a bundle-free React led me to web components
- A minimalist development workflow using ES6 modules and Snowpack
- I wrote something for CSS-Tricks
- "We don't miss layups"
- The secondary effects of your work
- What are you paying for, to live where you live?
- Nothing speaks like a demo
- A world of imaginary boundaries
- Checkboxland
- I wish you bad luck
- Drawing git branching diagrams
- Side-projects as a confidence hack
- Online Tools for Creative Kids
- Better vertical spacing with :not(:last-child)
- Recent Readings
- Made in 2019
2019 21
- Using the URL to build database-free web apps
- Music Box Fun
- Climbing the right mountain
- Using Tagged Template Literals to escape embedded HTML
- Alt-React
- The best conference I ever attended
- The incentives of business ownership
- Daily Demos: a ritual for raising kids that create
- How to meet great people at tech conferences
- Why do we use "git checkout" to discard file changes?
- The unfairness of doing what you love
- Connect Four: a case-study in invisible interface design
- 400 terrible blog posts
- Nonsense
- The unique power of games in building intuition
- Hacking my brain with podcasts
- Editing a commit in an interactive rebase
- Working for the side-effects
- How I'm making changes in 2019
- Thank you
- A super-underrated skill
2018 24
- Made in 2018
- We don't control outcomes
- Two Types of Work
- It's your fault they aren't listening
- I can't believe they gave me an "A" for this garbage
- Youth Group Activity: The Game of Life
- 4 Takeaways from Learning Futuristic JS with Wes Bos
- How to ask for help
- I'm working part-time now
- A Brief Overview of Docker Tags
- When NOT to Use a Design System
- Putting your Learning on Autopilot
- On Building Capital
- It's an Energy Problem
- 5 Takeaways from Learning CSS Grid
- Selective Ignorance in the Name of Specialization
- Jonathon Harris on Attention
- The Three Phases of Understanding
- Several Ways to Hide Easter Eggs on your Website
- Favorite Web Podcasts (2018 Update)
- Made in 2017
- The Cure for Boredom is Superpowers
- Never Count on Willpower
- Why new developers shouldn't hesitate to learn Rails in 2018
2017 20
- Really good, but not quite "landmark" articles
- Web Development with Python or PHP?
- What is Github?
- What I've Learned As A Designer and A Front-End Developer
- What Websites Know About You
- Modern web project learnings
- Hacktoberfesting my Personal Website
- Moved
- Why I like to spend my time in core web technologies
- How I Organize the Code Folder on my Computer
- Do Something Small
- The Unglamorous Work that Nobody Sees
- Snowboarding and Quitting
- Linking to your Javascript Library from Inside the Github Pages Docs Folder
- On Writing Something Every Day
- Beginner Syndrome
- Your site is slower than you think it is
- Made in 2016
- Fixing the Blank Space in Feedburner to Mailchimp RSS Newsletters
- Constraints and Focus
2016 26
- Embedding SVG Logos that Contain Text
- New Year, New Website
- Get your stuff out there
- The Perils of Sounding Smart
- How I choose a side project
- Farnam Street: what post-education education should look like
- It's about the Miles
- Let's Get. Stuff. Done.
- Every Possible Way
- Github's opportunity to increase open-source collaboration
- Introducing Bouncy Ball: A TodoMVC for Web Animation
- Design your Default
- Hamilton and the unsettling sense of urgency
- Constraint-based Learning
- Underdogs
- 5 Takeaways from 5 Years of Teaching Myself Web Programming
- How Virtual Reality Works on Websites Today
- Abstraction and Mental Models
- I don't know where to start
- Model your code like the real world
- Immerse Yourself
- Asking Questions
- Don Hertzfeldt on Creative Work
- The Art of the Analogy
- A Degree is an Abstraction
- The News Wasteland
2015 21
- Study under your Dream Team
- Compounding Benefits
- We are just seeing the beginning of interactive online learning
- Bitbooks: Closing Thoughts
- No Smarter than You
- On keeping your gh-pages and master branch in sync
- Daily Inspiration for Android Users
- Musk Hacks the Economy
- Sparkbox Apprenticeships
- Broken Windows in your Code
- Always use a Server for Local Development
- No Sidebars
- Good documentation is a signal
- Medium, and Design Details
- Setting up automated testing for a small client-side Javascript project
- git checkout -b sparkbox
- Circle of Concern vs Circle of Control
- An Opinionated Guide to Getting Help with Drupal
- On Designing Great Systems
- On project constraints and immovable deadlines
- User Experience and Driver's License Photos
2014 49
- Share what's working for you
- Think before you put up a sign
- How to Set Up a Simple Javascript Twitter Bot
- Every Possible Way to Define a Javascript Function
- Go Online
- Technology isn't the thing…
- How to make maps with Raphael.js
- Dumb Little Things
- An Overview of Javascript's try-catch
- EMs vs PX: A succinct history lesson
- On Students Solving "Real World" Problems
- Using !important for good, not evil
- If you are going to read, then comment
- Our Excuses
- Duplos and Constraints
- The Expectation of Transparency
- The relentless increase in opportunity costs
- The Frontend Developer's Guide to Docker
- Teachers and raising the bar
- What I've been working on
- The Open Internet is at Risk (and here's what you can do about it)
- Takedown requests, and the right to privacy
- Loving What I Do
- Leaping into a whole new world
- Connecting to the Github API using Octokit and Sinatra
- CSS Transitions VS Keyframe Animations
- Doing What You're Told
- Good Documentation Delivers Value
- It's time, again, for our education to move up the stack
- Using Metrics to Drive User Behavior
- Make Things Simple
- Don't Optimize Performance Prematurely
- Making Targeted Drupal Cache Clears using Drush
- Publishing Books to Github pages with Bitbooks
- Web Authentication is Broken
- Gumption
- How can Homework Make the World a Better Place?
- Persistence [Quote]
- How I rebuilt "Flying Toasters" using only CSS animations
- Platforms are powerful
- How do we free information?
- If you Free Information, you Improve Education
- Two Principles for 2014
- Tldr
- When Google Can't Help You Anymore
- It's Hard Being New
- Template Picker Now Supports Entities
- AnchorJS
- There's more than one way to save a node
2013 151
- Unconventional Github Projects
- On Finding Problems
- Packaging
- Always be Translating
- Interview Questions
- Open Source and the Critical Path
- Making Art [Quote]
- Blog the answers to questions that people ask you
- Front-end Style Guides
- If Gmail were built with Drupal
- Put the Hours in
- Open source and autonomy
- What IS Working?
- Junior Developers and Taking Correction
- Installing npm with homebrew
- Learning Drupal with the Janki Method
- Tough Mindedness [Quote]
- Being taught vs teaching yourself
- Pause javascript in the browser using the "debugger" command
- The Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter
- Earn our trust.
- Learned Helplessness
- Take the stage but share the credit
- Purging Life of Maintenance Costs
- Best of the Web Podcasts
- The costs of high-level vs low-level frameworks
- Sitting on the front row
- Please, stop stewing, and start blogging about Drupal
- 3 reasons I leave your website
- Making something customizable vs. making it smart
- 5 settings you didn't know you could control in Drupal
- Can I get a volunteer?
- Humility Hurts
- Err on the side of generosity
- Don't get frustrated. Get smarter.
- Share Everything
- Talk less, say more
- Shipping early doesn't mean shipping broken
- The Best in the World
- Acting Big
- I Trust You
- Procrastination: The future-you cannot be trusted
- I complain because...
- How I find open source resources
- Don't do everything custom
- My 3rd place
- Online Storytelling
- Taught by Machines
- Job security for knowledge workers
- 8 ways to take the pain out of Drupal's admin forms
- Visual attention is a zero-sum game
- Six weeks of Getting Things Done
- Can you believe this is the web?
- The costs of a high-maintenance lifestyle
- The Fogg Behavior Model
- Reflections on the Open Source Culture and Economy
- The World is Flatter
- The Formula for Stress
- Brands, listen up: actions speak louder than words
- We're on Drupal 8!
- Build it before you need it
- 5 (free) tools I am really digging right now
- Everybody's Weird
- Thinking Long Term
- Using hook_form_BASE_FORM_ID_alter()
- On Uni-tasking
- How to Email Busy People
- My Funny Little Guy
- Analyze, Filter, Deliver
- Killing Rumors
- The side-effects of sharing your work
- Obstacles to sharing your work
- Change the world with 5% more effort
- The Botched Interface Market
- 90% of everything is crap
- Writer Block Regions
- Absorb the Negative. Reflect the Positive.
- Drupal Tutorials: Exposed Filters with Views
- Learn by Doing
- Join the Conversation
- The interface IS the software
- Technical Myopia
- I am turning into everything I swore I wouldn't become
- Who is going to care, if you don't?
- Everybody's bad at new things
- Help Someone Move
- Kinds of Time
- Get 1 percent better, every day
- Design decisions are happening in the code
- Training is a Band-aid
- Adapting to change itself
- Drawing the line on feature requests
- Turn off the News
- Five basic principles for Drupal UIs that anyone can follow
- Changing your Environment
- Dabbling in Design
- Get Enough Rest
- Temporary vs. Forever
- Writing for the Web
- Find People who Care
- Friction is a Tool
- OK isn't
- Tetris
- Err on the side of simplicity
- Which is worse?
- Jargon
- On Obstacles
- Ideas
- Why we need emoticons
- Don't ship early if you aren't going to ship often
- Where is the limit?
- A web developer who cannot use photoshop
- Take control of what you consume
- Recording "Lessons Learned the Hard Way"
- Simplicity Takes Restraint
- Nail your Focus First
- The Training Sequence
- Is this an investment?
- You're not a genius, but it doesn't matter
- You don't have to be amazing… you just have to be consistent
- Nobody will teach you anything
- Everything gets harder
- Leaving it unfinished
- Constraints are Fun
- Fundamental Attribution Error and the User
- So you're bad at public speaking.
- You're going to screw up
- Manage Fields Wisely
- Looking for the bright spots
- Be Real
- Empowering Content Creators with the Template Picker Module
- How do I "see" my contributed code on Drupal.org?
- A New Version of Writer
- New in Writer 2.1
- Focus
- Preparation
- White Screen of Death
- Web Design for the Artistically Inept
- Writer: Customizing the default front page
- Can you make a sub-theme of a sub-theme?
- The Cost of Stuff
- Africa map using Raphael.js
- Exformation
- The End of Decay
- Let's make software that's easy to extend.
- Order the Octopus
- Usability 2.0
- This is an Amazing World
- Writer: A Blogging Theme for Developers
- What does RTBC mean?
- 2012 Retrospective
2012 43
- Understanding the Command Line
- Tips for Setting up Writer
- In Defense of Scrooge
- History
- Happy Holidays 2012
- Touchscreen
- Writing a Letter
- A Drupal 7 Image Gallery Tutorial
- Vim Color Schemes: A Call for Designers
- Open Source in the Government
- The Ulysses Contract
- The Command Line is a Terrifying Thing
- Perspectives of a Child
- The open source community that embraces designers most, wins.
- Family of Four
- How could I have ever forgotten
- Changes
- Why I Run
- 17 States in 14 Days
- In which I explain how I got my dream job
- Turning our challenges into our assets
- Multitasking and Context Switching
- Hey there Delilah, what's it like in Alpine Village?
- Optimism
- Manliness
- Jeqe Recipe
- Commitments
- Heidi Grows
- In the Press
- Remain Curious
- Climbing walls like Batman
- The Curse of Knowledge
- Drupalcon Denver Retrospective
- Never Settle for Being Mediocre
- Catching things before they hit the floor
- Try Hard Things
- Be Bold
- It's Not About You
- You Only Live Once
- StartUp Weekend Salt Lake City
- Form IS Function
- Generalizing vs Specializing
- Looking back. Looking forward.
2011 49
- Happy Holidays 2011
- Dichotomous Thinking
- Consider ALL the Options
- Fermi Estimations
- The eBook Enigma
- Spare Time
- There IS such a thing as a free lunch
- Winning Systems
- Turning traditional education upside down
- Do we really need to know all this stuff?
- Locus of Control
- I Like Statistics
- How to get people to do what you want them to do
- The Future is Mobile
- What do Mormons believe?
- Just Ask
- The Fall of Internet Privacy
- A Tribute to YouTube
- Opportunity Costs
- 5 must-have Firefox add-ons for the every day person
- 6 Ways to do Good on the Internet
- The Growth Mindset
- The 10 best Google search tricks
- Nothing Bad Ever Happens
- Bryan vs the Testing Center
- Things Worth Thinking About [Videos]
- The New York Times and The Sticky Platform
- Living Deliberately
- "I don't have time"
- 10 websites that you didn't know you couldn't live without
- My Book of Impossible Ideas
- 5 Awesome Books (that are FREE online)
- Location, Location, Location (putting yourself in the right spot)
- Bryan vs the Sunk Cost Fallacy
- The Future of Educational Games
- 5 Reasons You Should Be on Twitter
- Voting with your Dollar
- A Very Long Race
- A Whack on the Side of the Head
- Fear and the Critical Moment
- Ted
- Checking In
- Heidi
- Jolly Ranchers
- Planning my 100th Birthday Party
- The Most Important Image ever Taken
- Get a Booklist ASAP!
- The Power of Infographics
- $uccess