General Musings with Kevin Powell

Kevin Powell
  • 4.9 (12)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Weekly

I have a newsletter where I usually start things off with pretty long general musings before I share the content I've created in the previous week, as well as any interesting articles I've stumbled across in the last week.  Not everyone likes reading or having more emails in their inbox, though, so this podcast is an audio version of my newsletters. They aren't tutorials or technical explorations like my regular videos are, but instead tend to talk about a wide range of different topics, though they're generally at least somewhat related to front-end development in some way.

  1. 5d ago

    The easy way to learn nothing

    Corrections 1:50 - I said students who use AI every day scored about 80 points lower. It’s about 40 points lower (38 and 42 in the source). 5:47 - I said “almost 1,000 high schools in Turkey.” It should be almost 1,000 high school students. 👉 CSS Demystified: https://cssdemystified.com 👉 Newsletter: https://kevinpowell.co/newsletter Canadian teens who use AI for schoolwork every week are about two years behind the ones who never use it, yet other studies show students with an AI tutor learning twice as much. So which is it? I dig into the research on AI and learning, and why the struggle is the part you can't skip. ✅ My video on the PHP vulnerability that I mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBD1AgkM1VQ 🎓 Research ✅ PISA 2025 results (OECD): https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2026/09/pisa-2025-results-volume-i_5265bfb1.html ✅ Canadian teens who use AI are two years behind (Adam Dubé, The Conversation): https://ca.news.yahoo.com/release-ai-chatbots-harmed-teens-151349745.html ✅ Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning (Deslauriers et al., PNAS 2019): https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1821936116 ✅ Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning (Bastani et al., PNAS 2025): https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/without-guardrails-generative-ai-can-harm-education/ ✅ How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills (Anthropic): https://www.anthropic.com/news/AI-assistance-coding-skills ✅ AI tutoring outperforms in-class active learning (Kestin et al., Harvard): https://serl.fas.harvard.edu/publication/ai-tutoring-outperforms-class-active-learning-rct-introducing-novel-research-based ✅ From chalkboards to chatbots (World Bank, Nigeria): https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/From-chalkboards-to-chatbots-Transforming-learning-in-Nigeria ✅ The impact of generative AI on critical thinking (Microsoft Research + Carnegie Mellon): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-critical-thinking-self-reported-reductions-in-cognitive-effort-and-confidence-effects-from-a-survey-of-knowledge-workers/ ⌚ Timestamps 00:00 - Two years behind 00:37 - The asterisk on the Canadian data 01:06 - The "learn faster with AI" pitch 01:26 - We learn through friction 02:14 - Feeling like you've learned vs actually learning 03:15 - What happens when students get ChatGPT 04:25 - Anthropic's study on developers 05:53 - Why it's so easy to fall into this 07:54 - So why did some students learn twice as much? 09:32 - "But AI writes the code anyway" 11:34 - Trusting AI and critical thinking 13:11 - How to learn with AI without skipping the learning 14:09 - CSS Demystified

  2. Oct 23

    Why I am still making CSS tutorials

    Someone left a comment on one of my videos asking "Who still cares about all those little CSS details?" and it's not the first that asks that type of thing, so I felt like I should reply. ✅ Newsletter: https://kevinpowell.co/newsletter ✅ CSS animations to bring your site to life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSNiSdB8Ens ✅ Recreating GTA6's awesome scroll effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1MvM7whzg

  3. Oct 22

    This PHP vulnerability is a big deal

    Two bugs in PHP itself are being called "70% of the internet is affected", and the bug is serious, but the headline number is not. Here is what actually happened, where the 70% comes from, why so many sites are stuck without a fix, and what to do about it. PHP versions with the fix: 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35. 🔗 Links ✅ Wiz, "PHP2Shell": https://www.wiz.io/blog/php2shell-php-rce ✅ PHP security advisory (21 October): https://www.php.net/archive/2026.php#2026-10-21-5 ✅ PHP supported versions: https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php ✅ The Hacker News: https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/php-issues-emergency-patches-for-two.html ✅ Huntress: https://www.huntress.com/blog/php2shell-leaked-critical-php-vulnerabilities ✅ watchTowr: https://watchtowr.com/intelligence/php-remote-code-execution-php2shell/ ✅ Patchstack: https://patchstack.com/articles/php-major-vulnerability-alert-10-2026/ ✅ Cloudflare rules available to all customers (Help Net Security): https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/21/php2shell-php-vulnerabilities-patched-cve-2026-109618-cve-2026-109619/ ✅ W3Techs, PHP usage: https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php ✅ W3Techs, PHP 8 subversions: https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/8 ✅ W3Techs, WordPress share of all websites: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management ✅ Ubuntu security notice for PHP 8.1: https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8948-1 ⌚ Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 1:05 - What actually happened: two bugs in PHP itself 2:54 - Why it is such a big deal 4:33 - How your server runs PHP 5:44 - So is 70% of the internet affected? 6:56 - The real problem: old PHP with no fix 8:58 - Most people don't control their own PHP version 9:30 - Attacks, break-ins and who is going offline 11:23 - What you should do

  4. Oct 16

    I was getting on board with passkeys. Now this.

    An article saying "Passkeys are a trap. Do not use them." hit the front page of Hacker News, and its worry is attestation: a passkey feature that could let sites decide what software you can log in with. I break down what attestation actually is, why non-attested passkeys are still secure, and why I'm not too worried about it, at least for now. ✅ My newsletter: https://kevinpowell.co/newsletter ✅ Passkeys are a trap. Do not use them. (The Hack, Non-Functional): https://nonfunctional.substack.com/p/passkeys-are-a-trap-do-not-use-them ✅ FIDO Alliance members: https://fidoalliance.org/members ✅ Beyond Tellerand: https://beyondtellerrand.com/events/dusseldorf-2027/tickets

  5. Oct 9

    Why is AI motivating some devs and burning out others?

    Most developers say they like the AI tools they're using, yet motivation is down and burnout is everywhere. This week I look at what the 2026 Stack Overflow and State of Devs surveys say, and what you've been telling me in the comments. Then I get to what the people who are happier with AI are doing differently, and what could actually fix this. Sources: Stack Overflow 2026 Developer Survey: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026 State of Devs 2026: https://2026.stateofdevs.com/en-US My primary YouTube channel where I teach frontend development, with a strong focus on CSS: https://youtube.com/@kevinpowell ✉ The written version of my newsletter: https://www.kevinpowell.co/newsletter 💬 Come hang out with other dev's in my Discord Community: https://discord.gg/nTYCvrK Help support my channel 👨‍🎓 Get a course: https://www.kevinpowell.co/courses 👕 Buy a shirt: https://teespring.com/stores/making-the-internet-awesome 💖 Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kevinpowell 0:00 Developers like AI, so why the burnout? 0:15 The paradox in the Stack Overflow survey 1:58 What you've been saying in the comments 3:06 Reduced motivation is the top burnout symptom 4:13 Poor management, the top workplace difficulty 6:11 Some people are happier with AI 8:21 The job isn't typing, it's shipping products 9:33 Management needs a rethink 11:42 Lessons from Photoshop 14:45 What you can do 15:41 What do you think?

  6. Oct 2

    You can't escape CSS architecture

    ✅ Thoughtful Design Systems: https://thecascade.dev/courses/design-systems/ ✅ StyleX: https://stylexjs.com/ ✅ Jeremy Keith’s blog post: https://adactio.com/journal/857 My primary YouTube channel where I teach frontend development, with a strong focus on CSS: https://youtube.com/@KevinPowell ✉ The written version of my newsletter: https://www.kevinpowell.co/newsletter 💬 Come hang out with other dev's in my Discord Community: https://discord.gg/nTYCvrK Help support my channel 👨‍🎓 Get a course: https://www.kevinpowell.co/courses 👕 Buy a shirt: https://teespring.com/stores/making-the-internet-awesome 💖 Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kevinpowell

  7. Sep 25

    We're all fed up

    Beyond Tellerand: https://beyondtellerrand.com/ Thoughtful Design Systems: https://thecascade.dev/courses/design-systems/ The Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1wm5c21/i_am_done_with_this_shit/ My primary YouTube channel where I teach frontend development, with a strong focus on CSS: https://youtube.com/@kevinpowell ✉ The written version of my newsletter: https://www.kevinpowell.co/newsletter 💬 Come hang out with other dev's in my Discord Community: https://discord.gg/nTYCvrK Help support my channel 👨‍🎓 Get a course: https://www.kevinpowell.co/courses 👕 Buy a shirt: https://teespring.com/stores/making-the-internet-awesome 💖 Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kevinpowell

  8. Sep 17

    Digital Ocean killed CSS... again

    Piccalilli: https://piccalil.li Master.dev blog (run by Chris Coyier): https://master.dev/blog/ Smashing Magazine: https://www.smashingmagazine.com Ahmad Shadeed: https://ishadeed.com Josh W. Comeau: https://www.joshwcomeau.com Bramus: https://www.bram.us CSS Tip (Temani Afif): https://css-tip.com CSS Weekly: https://css-weekly.com/ Geoff Graham: https://geoffgraham.me Articles and posts that I mentioned during this video: Chris’ article: https://chriscoyier.net/2024/02/28/where-im-at-on-the-whole-css-tricks-thing/ Geoff’s first goodbye to CSS-Tricks: https://geoffgraham.me/goodbye-css-tricks/ Geoff’s latest post on why it went quiet: https://geoffgraham.me/why-css-tricks-has-been-quiet/ DHH’s post annoucing the funding: https://omarchy.org/news/2026/09/digitalocean-joins-as-founding-corporate-patron/

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About

I have a newsletter where I usually start things off with pretty long general musings before I share the content I've created in the previous week, as well as any interesting articles I've stumbled across in the last week.  Not everyone likes reading or having more emails in their inbox, though, so this podcast is an audio version of my newsletters. They aren't tutorials or technical explorations like my regular videos are, but instead tend to talk about a wide range of different topics, though they're generally at least somewhat related to front-end development in some way.

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