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there's a saying in my native language, "for work, double work". after spending most of my code writing hours to make our user experience as great as possible, i can confirm that this saying was meant for dark mode. it's a waste of time, really.

imagine you're building something and just because some users want to see it in a different color, you spend countless hours just to make buttons a different color or configure proper contrasts, you're just doubling your work. instead of building one screen, you're now working on two.

to ship fast and work smarter, it's important to relentlessly prioritize the highest immediate value and continue moving forward. if it's truly something you or your team want to do for your users, put it behind a paywall or incentive. Theo (founder of uploadthing) did exactly this and i think it makes complete sense. if your user is already paying, then it's for your product not different colors.

now, although this writeup is about dark mode in front-end development particularly, i think it's more than that. it's about de-prioritizing things that may not be important or relevant.

i find this extensible to any and all parts of life: relationships, extracurriculars, passions, even day to day living, and more. try not to spend time, energy, headspace, or money on what may not be of great significance. whether you realize it now or later, everything in this world is limited and there's always more than what meets the eye. convenience tends to outweigh cost and love is stronger than grudges. constantly re-rank things in order of importance and focus on what maters most to you.