Author Archives: Mike Crittenden

I am a compulsive dot squasher. When an app shows me a “hey! something new is here!” dot, then I must click it. It’s unavoidable. It’s an addiction. This habit doesn’t mesh well with work group chat. After years (YEARS!) of getting my productivity absolutely hammered by the dots of work-related group chat apps, I […]

I’ve spent the last few years trying to become a real life adult. Here’s a one page summary of what I’ve learned. Exercise Lift weights at least 3x per week. If you’re new, use the Stronglifts mobile app. Also do 30+ minutes of cardio at least 3x per week. Diet Follow the No S Diet […]

“What do you think, Critter?” The question that started it all. The multitasker’s worst enemy. I spend my work days on conference calls, and if I don’t have anything to say for a couple minutes, my mind wanders. Then, someone on the call says my name and I realize that I’ve done it again. I […]

DHH (of Basecamp and Ruby on Rails fame) said something on Tim Ferriss’s podcast last year that stuck with me: Finally, I’d say we employ the same tactic that we encourage everyone at the company to employ, which is to stop talking and start making. When we have disagreements about which way to go, just […]

There’s one list that I’ve found to be more valuable than the rest of them combined. I call this list “Things That Suck About My Life”. Here’s the process that I went through along with some random thoughts on why it’s been helpful for me.

Functional CSS (or Atomic CSS, or Utility-first CSS) is the latest thing to have blown my mind. This post is my attempt to explain why I think it’s amazing and why all of the common arguments against it are misguided or rooted in outdated ideas. What the heck is it? Functional CSS basically means that […]

One of the most common arguments against functional CSS aka atomic CSS aka utility-first CSS, such as Tachyons or Tailwind, is that it’s no different than just writing inline styles on everything. Here’s my take on why that’s not true. Utility classes are pre-defined With inline styles, you can do anything you want in terms of colors, font […]

I love tools. It’s a bit of an obsession. As an outlet for this, I’m starting a weekly screencast where I do short (like, 1-2 minute) intros into various tools that people might find useful. It’s called Tool Time (yes, like in Home Improvement…please don’t sue me). Check it out on Twitter.

I’m a fan of Grav CMS. I’m a fan of static site generators. But Grav CMS is not a static site generator. I’m creating this post to link to people who are confused by this. That word, “static” Grav is a “static file CMS”. Things like Jekyll or Hugo or Gatsby are “static site generators”. […]