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> However, 22 year old me would have looked at those things and run away. If we make it so that you have to understand programming to even start, then we take s

> However, 22 year old me would have looked at those things and run away. If we make it so that you have to understand programming to even start, then we take something open and enabling, and place it back in the hands of those who are already privileged. I am not sure I understand what exactly the argument is (as is often the case for me when feminist concepts of power, enablement, and so on are involved). Is she talking about hobbyists (someone who just want to play with technology and make a website for themselves) or people who want to enter web development as a career? I would expect hobbyists to have enough time and curiosity to be able to start with the basics. There is also nothing preventing hobbyists from building their sites with pure HTML and CSS. These web technologies still work today just as great as they did 20 years ago. And there is no pressure from the lists of required skills on job boards. If she is talking about people who already know that they want to get into professional web development just starting from scratch, then they have all the motivation in the world, numerous tutorials, online courses, and bootcamps. They have different goals than hobbyists, they need quick results geared towards job requirements. (Although I am having hard time imagining a person who would want to get into professional web development without going through the hobbyist stage first). The "something open and enabling" argument makes total sense to me only in the context of hobbyist web development. It’s a wonderful thing that everyone who so wishes can learn how to build and publish a website and participate in the global sharing of ideas. But why is this criterion even mentioned in the context of professional web development? Is it incumbent on a profession to be "open and enabling" for everybody? And what is she arguing as a solution, exactly? Stop using CSS-in-JS or JavaScript frameworks for professional development, because newcomers may find them hard to understand? Even though these technologies may be perfectly suitable for many situations? Why?

rovek 8y ago
This is why the article confused me, HTML and CSS still work as they always have and can be published in the same way they always have. The profession has moved on in the same way all professions have, they become more complex on the promise of becoming more efficient or valuable (whether this improvement is reality seems tangential to the "web development is hard and uninclusive" conversation here). So the only conclusion obvious to me is that this is a further attempt to politicise web development because not everyone can do it professionally, the whole "HTML & CSS are seen as feminine and easy" strawman narrative is becoming tedious in the frontend circlejerk community. HTML & CSS are easy for many if not most programmers, sorry it isn't your golden ticket to a 6 figure salary.

rovek 8y ago

This is why the article confused me, HTML and CSS still work as they always have and can be published in the same way they always have. The profession has moved on in the same way all professions have, they become more complex on the promise of becoming more efficient or valuable (whether this improvement is reality seems tangential to the "web development is hard and uninclusive" conversation here). So the only conclusion obvious to me is that this is a further attempt to politicise web development because not everyone can do it professionally, the whole "HTML & CSS are seen as feminine and easy" strawman narrative is becoming tedious in the frontend circlejerk community. HTML & CSS are easy for many if not most programmers, sorry it isn't your golden ticket to a 6 figure salary.