November in WebDev – Stefan's monthly digest 
Tags: webdev
Published: 2020-12-03 20:57:21

---
title: November in WebDev – Stefan's monthly digest 
published: true
description: My favorite content of November 2020 including embeddable browser statistics, writing well and some britpop.
canonical_url: https://www.stefanjudis.com/blog/monthly-digest-november-2020/
tags: webdev
---

Hello, hello, hello! 👋

We're entering the holiday season. 🎄 And I think I've even seen a few snowflakes in Berlin today. We're almost through a wild 2020, and I hope you're all safe and sound to enjoy the holidays in the best way possible.

November has been very busy. Let's dive into my favorite content of the month!

## Random MDN turned 2!

Two years ago, [the Random MDN Twitter bot](https://twitter.com/randomMDN) was born. It tweets random MDN pages a few times a day. If you want to have random web development facts in your Twitter timeline, you should check it out.

![Tweet showing that @randommdn turned 2](https://images.ctfassets.net/f20lfrunubsq/6pjWmtIoVUkH4cgnOUZDIr/d55ea525808e99cfc26d3619328b9d2a/Screenshot_2020-12-03_at_20.18.40.png)

## caniuse.com embeds as a service

How do you share browser support statistics in blog posts? I tend to take screenshots or link to caniuse.com. Both options are not great, but I found the solution to this problem! 

[Ire Aderinokun](https://twitter.com/ireaderinokun) provides [The CanIUse Embed](https://caniuse.bitsofco.de/). Implement a few lines of code in your site and embed always-up-to-date browser stats. Thank you, Ire!

![The CanIUse embed that shows browser support data](https://images.ctfassets.net/f20lfrunubsq/6Go6m2uZK4gMhJY2plfpYt/382e1e28bcbde9345a5f76d1d9546cf4/Screenshot_2020-12-03_at_20.25.20.png)

## Three excellent articles to read

- ["Yes or No?" — One Checkbox vs Two Radio Buttons.](https://www.sarasoueidan.com/blog/one-checkbox-or-two-radio-buttons/) by [Sara Soueidan](https://twitter.com/SaraSoueidan)
- [An updated daily front page of The New York Times as artwork on your wall](https://alexanderklopping.medium.com/an-updated-daily-front-page-of-the-new-york-times-as-artwork-on-your-wall-3b28c3261478) by [Alexander Klöpping](https://twitter.com/AlexanderNL)
- [An Engineering Team where Everyone is a Leader](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/a-team-where-everyone-is-a-leader/) by [Gergely Orosz](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz)

## Three useful projects to have a look at

-  [edent / SuperTinyIcons](https://github.com/edent/SuperTinyIcons) – SVG icons of your favorite website and app logos in under 1KB
-  [dylanaraps / pure-sh-bible](https://github.com/dylanaraps/pure-sh-bible) – A collection of pure POSIX sh alternatives to external processes
-  [microsoft / Web-Dev-For-Beginners](https://github.com/microsoft/Web-Dev-For-Beginners) – 24 Lessons, 12 Weeks, Get Started as a Web Developer 

## New posts on the blog

- [1025 shell command one-liners on one page](https://www.stefanjudis.com/notes/1025-shell-command-one-liners-on-one-page/) (note)
- [How to force yourself to leave the computer using the `leave` command](https://www.stefanjudis.com/today-i-learned/how-to-force-yourself-to-leave-the-computer-using-the-leave-command/) (TIL post)
- [A centered CSS navigation with fit-content](https://www.stefanjudis.com/snippets/a-centered-css-navigation-with-fit-content/) (snippet)
- [How to display Twitch emotes in tmi.js chat messages](https://www.stefanjudis.com/blog/how-to-display-twitch-emotes-in-tmi-js-chat-messages/) (blog post)
- [How to run GitHub actions on particular commits](https://www.stefanjudis.com/snippets/how-to-run-github-actions-on-particular-commits/) (snippet)

Read more [code snippets](https://www.stefanjudis.com/snippets/), [notes](https://www.stefanjudis.com/notes/), and [TIL posts](https://www.stefanjudis.com/today-i-learned/) on the blog.

## This month's DevSheets

- [Compact output with `git status`](https://twitter.com/stefanjudis/status/1328281649428258823)
- [`min-content`, `max-content` and `fit-content` in CSS](https://twitter.com/stefanjudis/status/1329345425640464384)
- [How to center elements using CSS grid](https://twitter.com/stefanjudis/status/1330863260866895879)
- [CSS filter functions](https://twitter.com/stefanjudis/status/1333072883887853569)

You can find [more #devsheets on Twitter](https://twitter.com/hashtag/devsheets?f=live).

## A talk to watch

The talk of this month is not a talk but a lecture. [Larry McEnerney's "Writing Beyond the Academy"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFwVf5a3pZM) changed how I approach blogging. Larry explains that writing rules like "Avoid passive verbs." or "Use short sentences." are useless.

The essential questions in writing are: who will read it, what does the reader care about, and what value does your writing provide. 💯

![Larry McEnerney teaching with a piece of paper in his hand](https://images.ctfassets.net/f20lfrunubsq/7HmurODGZAiaBg8elAxoAF/b1d939730ff5f9114150602ceecf221a/Screenshot_2020-12-03_at_19.39.34.png)

## A quote to think about

[Joel Califa](http://joelcalifa.com/) gave the excellent talk ["Full Stack Anxiety"](https://youtu.be/VBK6WDOOg2I). He describes the fact that there's not enough time to learn and follow every web development trend. **If you want to succeed in your career, you have to prioritize.**

> In most cases, every choice to grow in one discipline is also a choice to not to grow in another.

## A song that makes you stop coding

[Richard Ashcroft's "Break the Night with Color"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbfgKANU2J0) from 2006 came in the radio, and as a The Verve fan, it made my old Britpop heart jump! 

![Richard Ashcroft in a white tshirt](https://images.ctfassets.net/f20lfrunubsq/2ADbJy07jpB8qRBAdrp4PA/673bb82fe1778ac3957e5ef174640620/Screenshot_2020-12-03_at_19.20.39.png)

---

That's a wrap for this month! 🎉

If you like, [Tuesday's 8:30 pm CET I'm building today-i-learned.dev using Next.js and Firebase live on Twitch](https://www.twitch.tv/stefanjudis). I love it when people hang out with me! ♥️

And if you enjoy this newsletter, [if you share it, that would mean the world to me](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=I%20like%20@stefanjudis%20monthly%20newsletter&url=https://www.stefanjudis.com/blog/monthly-digest-november-2020/). :)

**Stay safe, happy holidays, and I'll talk to you in the new year!** 🎉 👋

PS. I heard, the cool kids use RSS. You can find [multiple feeds on my site](https://www.stefanjudis.com/feeds/).