Marijke Luttekes blog

A message of appreciation after attending DjangoCPH 2026 as a speaker. Last week, I had the joy of presenting at DjangoCPH (Django Danmark's annual conference in Copenhagen) for the third time. While big conferences are often the norm, DjangoCPH is a rather cute and small one, with around 60 people in the room and more online. And honestly, I love it. It's like spending the day in a cozy living room with friends, talking shop about shared passions, and then still enjoying each other's presence…

Claiming ownership of a meal you didn't make. When you order a meal in a restaurant, the food manifests itself through a pattern: You sit down and procure a menu. A waiter asks you for your order. The waiter communicates your order to the kitchen. The kitchen verifies (to the waiter) that the order has been acknowledged. The kitchen prepares the order. The kitchen notifies the waiter that the meal is ready. The waiter serves the meal to the customer. The customer can eat. And this is just what…

An overview of the latest changes to the blog. *slaps stylesheet* This front-end has many years on it, but a lick of paint and it's good to go. I've wanted to reorganize the stylesheet's CSS layers for a while, and to no one's surprise, that turned into a major refactor. I've released the changes; see the highlights below. Functional changes Layout rebuild: More flexibility with fewer HTML hacks. Regular font size: The previous text size did not respect browser settings, but now it does. Zoom…

Frontend and backend development are not the same, but we keep conflating them. An explanation of what makes them different. I will never forget the look on a contractor's face when he stared at a technically correct, but aesthetically disappointing dormer at our house. "Everyone can mess around," he said. Referring to the fact that most people can accomplish the basics, but not all master a craft. In my own industry, there is no specialty that makes me think of these words more than frontend...