Every element on this site obeys five laws, written before the first line of code:
- Nothing bounces. Aircraft flare; they do not boing.
- Every entrance decelerates. Fast out of the gate, long tail.
- Exits anticipate. A small pull-back before departure, then thrust.
- Velocity is visible. Scroll speed shears the media, then settles to zero.
- The article body is a no-fly zone. You are inside law five right now. Nothing on this page moves while you read.
Rules like these sound precious until you've tried the alternative. The alternative is fifty effects at seventy percent, which is how portfolio sites end up feeling like demo reels. A trial works the same way: the lawyer with one theory and the discipline to cut everything that doesn't serve it beats the lawyer with six good arguments every time.
The cut list is the design
The features I didn't ship took more discipline than the ones I did: no dark-mode toggle (one art direction, executed hard), no infinite scroll, no particle effects, no liquid distortion on every image. Each cut is logged in the black-box along with the five things that broke during the build — because a colophon that only lists victories is a closing argument, and this page is meant to be a record.
Restraint is not the absence of ambition. It is ambition with a theory of the case.
There's a deadline too, and it's public: this site ships before the book outreach does, because an asset that never ends is a liability with good typography. If the calendar squeezes, features get cut, not the date. V1 applies to the site about V1. It would be embarrassing if it didn't.