Blog
What started in 2019 as a place to document things I was learning as a web developer has since grown into a lot more.
Hey there, I’m Matt Fantinel
Welcome to my little corner of the web!
I am a web developer from Brazil, currently living in Italy. I built my first website when I was 9, and been in love with computers ever since.
This is the special place where I collect thoughts, photos, links and whatever else I feel like putting here. I guess you can say it‘s my digital garden.
Cool Links
I regularly gather the coolest links I come across on the web and post them here.
Quick Reviews
Things I’ve watched, played, heard or read.
Latest Posts
All the latest stuff I've posted is below. Check out the Archive page for more.
24 Oct 2026
Matt posted a Photo
Mont Blanc from Punta Helbronner
Taken on 2026-10-22
A gorgeous cable car ride up to 3466m rewards you with a stunning view of Mont Blanc (Monte Bianco), the highest peak in the Alps at a whopping 4807m, and the Italian Alps surrounding it. Down below lies the tiny but charming village of Courmayeur, where the cable car departs from.
20 Oct 2026
Matt shared a Cool Link
Cool Link
2026-10-20A library of ASCII art, but animated! You can browse a ton of scenes and data built with ASCII characters of your choice and even generate your own.
16 Oct 2026
Matt shared a Cool Link
Why don’t more developers “use the platform”?
Cool Link
2026-10-16This complements the previous link I shared nicely: most developers don’t properly use the platform, but why? This goes into possible reasons without being judgemental, and to me they make a lot of sense. When I first started going all-in into front-end development I’ve been a part of all of those cases, I guess. In a way, writing less code and relying on the platform are signs of development experience (or battle scars).
Matt shared a Cool Link
“Getting off the Modernization Treadmill”
Cool Link
2026-10-16Jim gives his notes on an amazing talk by Alexander Petros, and the topic is super relevant for any web dev.
It goes into how many of us, when modernizing our tech stack just for the sake of modernizing it, end up with objectively worse results than we’d have if we stuck to the tried and true.
HTML’s ideological goal is to make websites good for their users. React’s ideological goal is serving Facebook, which mostly wants to serve you ads. Both have completely different priorities.
(I’m linking to Jim’s notes instead of the talk directly because Jim makes great points too! But you should definitely watch the talk if the subject interests you)
10 Oct 2026
Matt posted a Quick Review
The Wailing
Reviewed on Oct 10, 2026
There is so much in this movie that is great, and it’s a rare horror movie where the second half is better than the first. The scenes with supernatural elements were superb to watch and the horror is really there.
Too bad the tonal whiplash in some of its scenes, where it goes super silly and almost slapstick, didn’t go well with me. And since none of the characters bear any semblance of likability, I didn’t really care what happened to them in the end (though I was all in for the mystery).
Movie
07 Oct 2026
Matt published a Blog Post
Why S
Why Safari's URL Bar goes opaque and how to fix it
6 min read
A fix for an issue that shouldn't even exist — but a fix nonetheless.
Matt shared a Cool Link
Cool Link
2026-10-07This is absolutely incredible! Pick any website you want and control a stick figure while you destroy absolutely everything on it. A good way of getting revenge on the bad websites that have failed you in the past.
04 Oct 2026
Matt posted a Quick Review
Dead Poets Society
Reviewed on Oct 04, 2026
Classics are classics for a reason, right? Such a beautiful movie! And feels really good to watch, too. The scenes just flow with such levity and you don’t even feel the time pass.
Movie
30 Sep 2026
Matt shared a Cool Link
Cool Link
2026-09-30Last month I shared that the State of Devs survey was going on, and now the results are out! I always love this type of surveys and the results are really interesting, even if somewhat expected. Lots of uncertainty in the industry, you might be able to guess why.
Matt posted a Quick Review
Of Mice and Men
Reviewed on Sep 30, 2026
A short and easy to read book that actually has a surprising amount of depth. While it took a while for me to get invested in it, once I did it really left a mark.
Book
28 Sep 2026
Matt posted a Quick Review
Disclosure Day
Reviewed on Sep 28, 2026
An absolute nothing burger of a film. An ET movie in 2026 ought to try to do something new or different, but this one does nothing. It takes itself so seriously that it just feels silly. It’s even sillier how many shots there are of people reacting to how serious the things happening in the movie are, as if the movie is trying really hard to make you care, too. I didn’t.
Movie
25 Sep 2026
Matt shared a Cool Link
What AI does to the minds of novice coders
Cool Link
2026-09-25Great video! It goes into how AI as a tool affects our way of thinking, how damaging that can be for learning, and how to leverage it in a way that could be positive while still giving us ownership of what we build.
I’ve seen this video circulating before but never gave it a chance due to it coming from a brand (JetBrains), but I’m glad I decided to give it a watch now.