To learn web development you need to accumulate several skills. HTML is not only a mandatory, foundational skill for web development, it is also one of the easiest to learn.. until it’s time to niche down.
Eventually, once you have a working knowledge of all the basics, it’s time to dive deeper into each skill to get a deeper and deeper understanding of the subject as a whole.
It’s like learning how to paint; you practice some basics: how to hold the brush, how to mix the paint. Then you work on increasingly complex projects.. paint a circle, then a flower, then a portrait.
Then eventually.. you go back to the basics with the clear intention of learning it from a different angle, with more depth. You already know how to hold the brush, so now you’ll focus more on your specific technique. You already know how to mix paints, so now you’ll study some color theory.
In the same vein, Manuel has gone deeper into HTML in a brilliantly playful way: by creating HTMHell, a blog dedicated to the worst HTML practices and how to avoid them, with code examples from real websites.
He talks about the project more in the interview below: