Every line of code has a cost—but some lines cost more than others. This rather Orwellian-sounding statement might seem stark, but for web performance engineers, it’s a useful perspective when considering cloud costs. Why Should You Care About Costs? Cost reduction directly impacts the bottom line. Money saved can be reinvested into meaningful initiatives, like […]
If you’re reading this, you probably have spent time looking over performance traces, flame charts, network logs and waterfall charts. The key word here is looking. Paint timings like FCP and LCP, Interaction to Next Paint, Long Animation Frames – many of the metrics and APIs we use measure the visual experience of using the […]
Real world examples of how over-optimizing for metrics can be at odds with performance. “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” An adage attributed to Charles Goodhart, a British economist. Overview In web performance, Goodhart’s law surfaces when optimizing for metrics and optimizing for UX might lead to opposite […]