Frank Chimero’s The Web’s Grain has been making the rounds in the web designer and developer community lately and for good reason. In a nutshell he argues that we’ve been forcing the web to be something it’s not. This is something I’ve been contemplating lately for a few reasons: I’m getting older and perhaps more contemplative; I’ve been trying to learn more and more to keep up with all the new tools, processes and frameworks that seem to pop up daily; and I’ve been feeling like the web has been diverging from its original purpose and direction.

Part of it is nostalgia, but there’s another part that just being overwhelmed.

He says:

What would happen if we stopped treating the web like a blank canvas to paint on, and instead like a material to build with?

The point really is that we need to take a step back and examine what it is we’re trying to do here. As has been said elsewhere, are these things simply on the web or of the web?

The article is a decent length and well worth the time it takes to read. For me it resonated deeply.