The first time I truly understood the DOM, it felt less like learning a new API and more like discovering the rulebook behind the dungeon screen. For years I treated the browser like a mysterious Dungeon Master who simply made things appear. Click a button, something happens. Submit a form, data vanishes into the ether. Change a class, styles rearrange themselves like obedient goblins. It felt magical. It is not…
There was a time when I treated layout like it started at display: flex;. If something wasn’t aligned, spaced, or distributed exactly the way I imagined, I didn’t pause to understand what the browser was already doing. I just reached for Flexbox. It felt like leveling up. Normal document flow, on the other hand, felt like the starter dungeon. Functional. Necessary. But not where the “real” mechanics lived. That assumption…
CSS has a reputation problem – and for a long time, I bought into it. Early on, I treated CSS as “just styling.” Something you learn first, use constantly, and rarely revisit with much intention. JavaScript felt like the real work. Frameworks felt like progress. CSS was just… there. Until something broke, at which point it somehow became the problem. Over time, I realized that view was backwards. Modern CSS…