For me this is the lead: > And come to think of it, you’ll probably be expected to learn at least one backend language, too. (“So you can unblock yourself” is

For me this is the lead: > And come to think of it, you’ll probably be expected to learn at least one backend language, too. (“So you can unblock yourself” is the reason given, although “so you can do your own job, plus a little bit of someone else’s,” is sometimes more accurate.) The general trend is we all become poorly-trained "Full-Stack" developers. > Every tool promises to make frontend uncomplicated and fast; that’s the only concern. They say it the same way I reassure my five-year-old that his vaccinations will be swift and painless; just something necessary to get out of the way as quickly and thoughtlessly as possible. > But when did speed become the main concern? And why? The general trend is that companies want to commodify development, both frontend and backend. Fewer developers is less money which is more budget/runway/profits/etc. It also drives a devaluing (in perception and in fact) of our profession where "anybody" can do it. > The web is positively overrun with inaccessible code. Odds are, even if that specific problem doesn’t currently affect you, you still see forms that won’t submit, invisible buttons, errors surfaced in the UI, utterly broken layouts, things that don’t work on mobile devices or in certain browsers, text and fonts that are difficult to impossible to read, interfaces that are impossible to zoom or scroll, interactions that break down, and silent or unhelpful error messages—all quite likely on a daily or near-daily basis. All. The. Time. Especially since I use Firefox as my daily driver, I see exactly which companies and websites didn't bother to test outside a Chrome browser. Even Chromium breaks down sometimes (looking at you Slack), and the fix is sending a different useragent. Opening up developer tools for a commercial site is a deluge of errors and warnings. The problem has grown far worse in the last few years even for websites I've used for decades. To further the author's point, I think much of the complexity of CSS/HTML (and, yes, JS) these days is the sheer amount of complex `<div>` nesting that tool-assisted development spits out. Modern CSS is hard because it must conform to this nested Tower of Hanoi that makes old table layouts look appealing. Thoughtfully laying out a page is like designing an API; you have to think of its ergonomics that aren't quantified in any meaningful way. Of course, what isn't quantified is ripe for layoffs. The greater push/reliance of tool-assisted development by commercial enterprises drives out expertise in favor of low-cost mass hiring/firing. Two decades ago I saw outsourcing developers grow to the same hype that AI is currently enjoying. Just like before, I expect a large wave towards tool-assisted development built on the hype, only for it to collapse under the weight of its own impossible expectations. By then the damage will be done.