Write / 2026-08-12 · 4 min read
Finish the thing properly
Fourteen years of hockey taught me the same lesson as a last 5% of CSS: the unglamorous part is the work.
A site that almost works is not a site. The hover that misses on a phone, the type that jumps when a webfont lands, the form that says invalid input — those are the frames people remember.
I would rather ship fewer pages and have every one hold at 200% zoom than collect effects. That is not a moral stance. It is how you stay hired.
The last five percent
Hockey had a similar grammar. You do not get credit for the idea of backchecking. You either did it or the other team scored. Front-end is quieter, but the meter is the same: did the person get through, or did they bounce.
The last five percent is rarely a new library. It is the focus ring, the empty state, the print stylesheet, the moment a gust should not move the submit button.
One field. One clock. If the type, the video, and the globe disagree about time, the site is a pile of demos. Finish means they agree.