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The LokerDollar.com web up to 85% faster in some cities — by moving our code farther from users.
Sounds backwards. Here's why it worked.
1. The edge promise is seductive: run your code in 300+ cities, and it's milliseconds from every user. Newark, Sydney, São Paulo — all local.
2. Your code doesn't work alone. It talks to a database. And that database lives in one place. A single page render can mean 6+ sequential trips to it.
3. Put your compute "at the edge," and each of those trips crosses an ocean and comes back. The edge didn't remove the distance. It multiplied it. That's how a Sydney request quietly turned into seconds of pure waiting.
The fix was one line of config Cloudflare smart placement stopped stop pinning our code next to the user, and run it next to the database instead. One long trip to reach compute, then all the DB chatter is local and nearly free.
The result, measured on our own traffic (P90 — the slowest 1 in 10 requests):
• Newark ↓ 85%
• Sydney ↓ 82%
• Melbourne ↓ 63%
• São Paulo ↓ 60%
and …12 cities faster overall
The lesson I'm taking with me:
Latency isn't about distance to the user. It's the number of long trips on the critical path. Put compute where it talks the most — for data-heavy apps, that's your database, not the edge.
#WebPerformance #EdgeComputing #Cloudflare #BuildInPublic #SoftwareEngineering
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The layout decides where the eye goes before the design does: Z for one big CTA, F for reading, bento for "show me everything fast".
Which one do you reach for most? Drop the number 👇
Handy reference for layouts.
A little experiment with speed, motion, and interactive 3D
The big "the pursuit faster" type with the car is a strong pairing. Was the 3D done in Three.js?
Every web guide says get visitors to the point faster.
For some brands, that's how you lose them.
A delivery app should get you to checkout in two taps. Some brands sell patience, though. A bespoke tailor needs at least two fittings for one suit, and a good architect walks the land for weeks before drawing a line. When their homepage rushes you to "Book a call" in the first three seconds, it tells you the opposite of what they sell.
By slow I mean the pacing. A slow page shows one thing at a time and gives it room, and it can still be short.
Studio Kōzō is an architecture studio I built from the name up, the kind that walks the land first. Its website has six chapters, and one scroll moves you exactly one. The scene changes first, then the words arrive. You can't skim it, but six scrolls take you from the ground to the contact form.
Which part of your work can't be rushed, however much a customer asks? Drop it below and I'll answer with the first thing I'd slow down on your homepage.
Studio Kōzō (best on a desktop): https://shockingmike.github.io/kozo/
I like the chapter idea.
