Hi, I'm Ben.

Writing

2017

• The Internet in Cuba
• Redesign!

2015

• Notes on 2015
• Dutch PHP Conference 2015
• Smarter CSS builds with Webpack
• Testing Flux Stores without Jest
• My CSS in 2014

2014

• BEM modifiers: multiple classes vs @extend
• Alternatives to Compass
• Server-rendered React components in Rails

2013

• Declarative JS components with viewloader.js
• Keyboard shortcuts and disabling autocorrect on HTML inputs
• Stop using so many Sass variables.

Speaking

• The UI is an Application (Dutch PHP Conference, Jun 2015) slides
• Hands on with the modern front end stack (workshop) (Dutch PHP Conference, Jun 2015) slides code
• The New Front End Stack: A really really really high level introduction (Envato Code Party, May 2015) slides
• Smarter Sass builds with Webpack (MelbCSS, Apr 2015 & MelbJS, May 2015) slides
• Faking Real Time: Optimistic Updates & Eventual Consistency (Decompress, Mar 2015) slides
• Styling Components with JavaScript: MelbCSS Edition (MelbCSS, Dec 2014) slides
• Presenting Dev Achievements to Non-Devs (Envato Code Party, Nov 2014)
• Styling Components with JavaScript (MelbJS, Sep 2014) slides
• Going Isomorphic with React (MelbJS, Jul 2014) slides
• CSS Architecture on a Shoestring (Decompress, Apr 2014) slides
• Element Queries: Responsive Web Design’s Unicorn (Be Responsive, Jan 2014) video slides
• Browser Extensions vs Your JavaScript (MelbJS, Mar 2013) video slides

Working

I’m currently taking a break from work and travelling around the world with my bestie.

Previously, I was building the world’s most popular digital marketplaces, a very ambitious website builder and a bunch of other stuff while working with and learning from some super talented people at Envato.

Before that, I was part of a plucky team of upstarts at The Just Group who helped bring a bricks & mortar retail fashion behemoth into the internet age.

Elsewhere

I write open source code and build side projects on GitHub, send opinions and dad jokes into the void on Twitter, endorse colleagues for natural horsemanship and sea captaincy on LinkedIn, post photos of balloons and sunsets on Instagram, watch fx showreels and skateboarding videos on Vimeo, refuse to let go of the early 2000s on Last.fm, document our adventures around the world on BenAndCamilla.in and am usually the human behind bensmithett everywhere else.

Always buy the tourist photo.