46 replies

1. Bastian Allgeier 4 min later

   @zachleat There are so many bytes that always live in the shadow of the first one. But their work is still important. 💚🤖 We must never forget that. I'm glad you brought this up!

   1. Zach Leatherman 46 min later

      @bastianallgeier all bytes matter… wait

2. Private reply 8 min later
3. amos 12 min later

   @zachleat single byte webpage or gtfo

   1. Zach Leatherman 45 min later

      @fasterthanlime the fastest web site

4. Tom Walker 14 min later

   @zachleat Life hack: fire a 0 over the wire as quickly as possible and then take 30 sec before sending anything else

   1. Zach Leatherman 45 min later

      @tomw this seems… not ideal 😅

5. Stuart Langridge 19 min later

   @zachleat gonna write a little Apache module that responds with "HTTP" before even invoking the back end, making time-to-first-byte be, like, 9 milliseconds

   1. Zach Leatherman 43 min later

      @sil Stuart this is cheating

      1. Stuart Langridge 1 hr later

         @zachleat Goodhart's law: if you focus everything on a particular metric to make everyone better, everyone cheats by finding ways to pass the metric while continuing doing the wrong thing

         1. Private reply 3 hr later
            1. Private reply 3 hr later
         2. Feoh 3 hr later

            @sil @zachleat Shades of 200lb Soviet Tea Kettles! :)

         3. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

            @sil what in the lighthouse core web vitals do you mean

   2. Pelle Wessman 1 hr later

      @sil @zachleat I’m going to make this happen already in the Service Worker 😤 Then it’s <1ms

6. Jeremy Neander 32 min later

   @zachleat After the first byte, folks seem to lose their appetyte.

   1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

      @jeremy Jeremy what have you done

7. Šime Vidas 45 min later

   @zachleat time to first megabyte of JavaScript

   1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

      @simevidas can a sample size for a metric be too large

8. Jason Garber 46 min later

   @zachleat Truly the middle child of bytes.

   1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

      @jgarber this hit too close to home Jason

      1. Jason Garber 22 hr later

         @zachleat Right? 😭

9. Jason Garber 47 min later

   @zachleat The first byte is a Boomer. Second byte is GenX (who?). All subsequent bytes eat too much avocado toast.

10. David McCormick 1 hr later

    @zachleat the time to first byte is taken with the eyes

    What?

    1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

       @dmc I am unfamiliar with this expression 😅

       1. David McCormick 23 hr later

          @zachleat yeah sorry I think I thought it was better known than it is perhaps. Internet seems to think it is probably something Ottolenghi said once (possibly not in relation to performance metrics)

11. Matt Steele 1 hr later

    @zachleat sounds like you’ve got a new TED talk in the works to dethrone the dancing guy

    1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

       @mattdsteele ha! I know this reference 🙌🏻

12. Katie Sylor-Miller 1 hr later

    @zachleat this made me think of the schoolhouse rock
    “I’m just a bill” but “I’m just a byte” and a sad looking second byte sitting there and getting a redemption arc

    1. Zach Leatherman 22 hr later

       @ksylor we need this

    2. live, laugh, loni 1 day later

       @ksylor @zachleat lmao now i wanna do a song abt tcp slow start in the style of the counting crows

       🎶 round trips, they make us very, very, very, very late 🎵

13. Private reply 6 hr later
14. live, laugh, loni 1 day later

    @zachleat u r so rtt abt this zach 😢

    1. Zach Leatherman 1 day later

       @lawnsea packet up, we have a winner

       1. live, laugh, loni 1 day later

          @zachleat sorry i got off to a slow start on this one

15. Nathan Knowler February 23, 2024

    @zachleat People really should care a bit more.

    1. Konnor Rogers February 23, 2024

       @knowler @zachleat personally, I think people should care one byte more.

16. Zach Leatherman February 23, 2024

    I am a middle child

    1. Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊) February 23, 2024

       @zachleat so…children[1] ?

       1. Konnor Rogers February 23, 2024

          @jaredwhite @zachleat

          if (children.length === 3) return children[1]

    2. Nathan Knowler February 23, 2024

       @zachleat Do you find you click more with TTI?

    3. Konnor Rogers February 23, 2024

       @zachleat fellow middle child checking in 🫡

    4. ppk 🇪🇺 February 23, 2024

       @zachleat You are a middle child. You have no special selector like first-child or last-child. You will have to mess about with nth-child until it works. We feel for you.

    5. Jason Garber February 23, 2024

       @zachleat super same

    6. Rasmus Fløe February 23, 2024

       @zachleat Demand a :middle-child selector!

       1. Zach Leatherman February 23, 2024

          @phloe I’m very tempted even though I can’t remember needing this in practical work 😅