As someone who's deeply invested in the web, both as a developer and user, I've been flummoxed by recent trends in web development. Changes in design and taste aside, how sites and applications are built and the assumptions that are made in their construction are so very different from what I'm used to, let alone what I'm capable of producing. If, like me, you're trying to find out how so much has passed you by, then this is a must read.

(H/T Stephen Hackett)