Latency numbers every programmer should know

[nolanlawson]

When I try to advocate for offline-first these days, I don't talk much about offline itself. It just feels like a non-starter.

"Offline is an edge case." "Our users aren't constantly on the subway." "I don't expect apps to work offline anyway." Etc.

Instead what I talk about is how the network is slow. So if you minimize calls to the network, your app automatically gets snappier, whether it's offline or online.

This gist really drives the point home. It's useful to remember that the network is an order-of-magnitude slower than everything else, even when it's working.

I also wrote a blogpost on this theme: "Offline-first is people-first".