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Less Snake Oil, More Context — surma.dev

surma.dev · 1,501 words · saved by 1 readers

I want to change how we — as a community — approach, analyze, and understand performance problems. Often I see questions like "What's the best way to do X?", "What is the fastest library to do Y?". Superlatives are human nature, it seems. But for performance work, they can be counter-productive. Performance on the web can be a problem. Developers will always try to push the boundaries of what they can get away with and that's a good thing. I don't want to change that. aka "Rules Not Tools". I saw "snake oil" used in a tweet by Alex Russell and I think it perfectly captures both the opaqueness and the unreliability of the treatment. Examples: All of these are true in a specific context. The thing to realize is that slowness or a janky animation is a symptom, not an illness. What is needed here is a differential diagnosis procedure. A janky animation can have any number of causes, but it's likely that only one is present. For example, if the jankiness is caused by garbage collection of b

Less Snake Oil, More Context — surma.dev --> I want to change how we — as a community — approach, analyze, and understand performance problems. Often I see questions like "What's the best way to do X?", "What is the fastest library to do Y?". Superlatives are human nature, it seems. But for performance work, they can be counter-productive. Performance on the web can be a problem. Developers will always try to push the boundaries of what they can get away with and that's a good thing. I don't want to change that. Apply snake oil generously to affected area. aka "Rules Not Tools". I saw "snake o

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