The other day when I was on PubSub I noticed their simple “Instructions”. If you notice you, the text in the textarea fades away when you focus on the textarea.

It got me thinking of how I could do this. Turns out it is quite simple to do.

To see a working example (very pretty one at that) JavaScript Fader Example (All source code for this example is in this file).

About a month ago, my boss came to me with a project that another department in our company was working on. He asked me for my opinion on the project but before I answered, I asked him his opinion. His answer forever changed my life. His response was, “it was pretty decent“.

I broke down laughing. I couldn’t hold back the tears. So now our company standard is “pretty decent”. Every time someone asks me about the quality or how something works, I respond with a shrug and then I say that it is “pretty decent”.

I suggest you try it. See how it works for you. I bet you will be surprised with the results.