Came across this spot on article by Shubham Bose thanks to John Gruber in his aptly named post "Your Frustration Is the Product." You should read both. Here's Bose pointing out the chef's kiss irony that is thrown in your face anytime you go online.

"When you open a website on your phone, it's like participating in a high-frequency financial trading market. That heat you feel on the back of your phone? The sudden whirring of fans on your laptop? Contributing to that plus battery usage are a combination of these tiny scripts.

Ironically, this surveillance apparatus initializes alongside requests fetchingpurr.nytimes.com/tcf which I can only assume is Europe's IAB transparency and consent framework. They named the consent framework endpoint purr. A cat purring while it rifles through your pockets."

Having written for the likes of IGN and DualShockers, tracking and clicks aren't just the name of the game—it is the game. Browsing the web is a harrowing experience these days. As the tech guy in my family, I make sure my network and everyone's phones are loaded with blockers to help them. I can't tell you how much it breaks my heart to see my mom battling ads just to try and read a recipe on her iPad.

"As a publisher, you can't force a user through 3-4 dismissive actions before content is properly visible and expect the experience to be appreciated. Doing so is equivalent to burning your user's cognitive budget before value is delivered. The business excuse of, "We need compliance and lead generation" doesn't end up benefiting the user. If they haven't read a single word of your journalism, why would they subscribe to you?"

A question I have been asking myself for years.

Given the recent redesign of Max Frequency and it being written entirely with Claude Code, I was curious (and nervous) that it loaded a ton of bloat despite my only analytics being Plausible (which you can see live if you are curious). Loading up the home page today, I was mortified to see 37MB.

260319_MF Data 37MB

Then I realized the site was just trying to load the episode of The Max Frequency Podcast at the top. Going to a more traditional page, the size was a much more respectable 878KB.1

260319_MF Data 878KB

If you'd like a more interactive version of Bose's superb post, I implore you to check out the equally superb—albeit funnier—How to Monetize a Blog from modem.io.2 Maybe Bose, Gruber, and myself ought to take some advice...

Footnotes

  1. For kicks and giggles, I checked the other three sites linked here—Daring Fireball, Bose's blog, and modem.io. DF came in at 1.17MB and I discovered a lovely CSS file. Bose is sitting at 1.56MB and modem is 5.82MB; but that one makes sense given all the media gold there. Seriously, check that one out. ↩

  2. And here is a slick "Making Of" style post for how Tyler (I think) made that "How to Monetize a Blog" page. Never noticed this before. ↩