Notes on slow internet

I spent two weeks at a cabin where the only connection was a 3G hotspot that maxed out at maybe 200 KB/s on a good day. I had no choice — work had to keep going. What I learned in those two weeks reshaped how I think about software design.

The first lesson was about loading screens. If a page takes ten seconds to load, you don't sit there for ten seconds — you switch to another tab, you check your phone, you make tea. By the time you come back, the context is gone. Slow loads don't just cost time; they cost continuity.

The second lesson was about images. Every site is too heavy. The average page I visited downloaded 4 MB of stuff to display 200 words. It was painful in a way that felt almost rude.

The third lesson was about how much of what we consider "modern" is just the bandwidth telling us we can.

I'm back on fiber now. I still kept a few of the habits. I close tabs aggressively. I never open a link without reading the headline first. I write shorter emails.