This session explores familiar patterns that slowly turned simple web apps into things that feel harder than they should be. Not because anyone was careless, but because the trade offs only became visible years later.

Using well known websites as reference points, we look at the visible effects of these decisions at scale and recognise the same patterns in our own work. No deep technical dives, no frameworks, and no demos. Just stories, recognition, and the shared relief of realising this was never just your team.

If you have ever looked at a web application and thought “why is this so complicated”, this session is for you.