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This Month in React

This Month in React

By Reactiflux, with Mark Erikson and Carl Vitullo

How busy professionals stay on top of the React ecosystem. We give you a 1 hour recap of the latest news and nuance in React's development and ecosystem, the web dev labor market, upcoming conferences, and open source releases. New episodes the first week of every month, with live recordings on the last Wednesday of every month in the Reactiflux stage.

Hosted by friends and veterans of the community, Mark Erikson and Carl Vitullo. They've been driving forces in the Reactiflux Discord since 2015. Mark brings his many years maintaining Redux, and Carl his experience at a half-dozen startups.
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Community Spotlight – React Miami with Michelle Bakels

This Month in ReactApr 12, 2023

00:00
40:37
TMiR 2024-03: React canary is 19, New ShadCN bits, Astro looks like Wordpress. Wiz??

TMiR 2024-03: React canary is 19, New ShadCN bits, Astro looks like Wordpress. Wiz??

Apr 02, 202452:37
TMiR 2024-02: React 19 (but more details), Apple tries to kill PWAs

TMiR 2024-02: React 19 (but more details), Apple tries to kill PWAs

Mar 03, 202451:45
TMiR 2024-01: React 19?? The year ahead; Why are people so miffed?

TMiR 2024-01: React 19?? The year ahead; Why are people so miffed?

Feb 03, 202459:21
TMiR 2023-12: RSC accelerates, RTK v2, better React docs, XState v5

TMiR 2023-12: RSC accelerates, RTK v2, better React docs, XState v5

This Month in React – December 2023

Dec 29, 202353:10
TMiR 2023-11: Redux Toolkit 2.0, Kent v Lee, Prettier bounty

TMiR 2023-11: Redux Toolkit 2.0, Kent v Lee, Prettier bounty

Dec 01, 202348:07
TMiR 2023-10: React Forget, Canary Releases, Barrel Files, and new releases

TMiR 2023-10: React Forget, Canary Releases, Barrel Files, and new releases

This Month in React – October 2023

Oct 30, 202352:57
This Month in React – September 2023

This Month in React – September 2023

Sep 30, 202359:52
This Month in React – August 2023

This Month in React – August 2023

Sep 01, 202351:37
This Month in React – July 2023

This Month in React – July 2023

Jul 31, 202349:60
Office Hours – States of Burnout with Jenny Truong

Office Hours – States of Burnout with Jenny Truong

Jenny Truong is head of operations and developer relations at Stately, and recently gave a talk titled “The Unexpected States of Burnout” at React Miami, which you can watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcN8grYAEuQ. 

It’s easy to accidentally transition from being productive to burning out. We tend to think in the moment in life - I’m happy, I’m excited, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm burnt out. We sometimes fail to think about the transitions between the states — how did I become tired, burnt out, and how do I transition to a better state? 

Drawing on Jenny’s experience working at a highly-productive startup, join us as Carl Vitullo talks with her about how burnout can manifest, how it can impact our lives in unexpected ways, and how we can manage the energy we give work to thrive without burning out.

https://twitter.com/jen_ayy_

⁠https://twitter.com/vcarl_

Jul 17, 202350:45
This Month in React – June 2023

This Month in React – June 2023

Links discussed:
Jun 30, 202350:52
This Month in React – May 2023

This Month in React – May 2023

Join ⁠⁠⁠Carl Vitullo⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Mark Erikson⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Sebastien Lorber⁠⁠⁠ as they cover all the latest news in the React community!


Jun 09, 202353:55
Office Hours – Professional Communication with Elizabeth Woolf

Office Hours – Professional Communication with Elizabeth Woolf

Developing software requires a lot of communication with other developers, with other teams and divisions, with managers or less experienced developers. Carl Vitullo is joined by Elizabeth Woolf to talk about feedback, team conflicts, salary negotiation, and more.

Elizabeth has worked at the intersection of tech and communication for years, getting her start in 2016 helping professors and students prepare talks and presentations. She’s just launched a new coaching business, Woolf Communication, in January after seeing a gap between what was expected of engineers in the workplace and what training is made available to them.

Links mentioned:

Timestamps:

  • [00:00:45] “Soft skills”
  • [00:04:08] Fear of feedback
  • [00:06:47] Deciding whether to give feedback
  • [00:08:21] Trusting your gut
  • [00:09:29] Building feedback into team culture
  • [00:10:43] Giving upward feedback
  • [00:13:20] Communication as personal improvement
  • [00:14:53] Importance of listening
  • [00:17:43] Separating tone and content
  • [00:23:51] Negotiations
  • [00:29:03] Information gathering
  • [00:30:25] Different dimensions of value to negotiate
  • [00:34:02] Information asymmetry in negotiating
  • [00:36:17] Finding and knowing your worth
  • [00:37:52] Value of a genuine mentor figure
  • [00:38:51] Finding a mentor
  • [00:40:03] Asking good questions to a mentor
  • [00:42:29] Mentors and genuine networking
  • [00:45:27] Networking effectively
  • [00:46:57] The power of showing up consistently
  • [00:50:02] Learning to trust your gut
  • [00:51:02] Looking backwards to find what gives you joy
  • [00:56:19] What if your no could have taught you more than yes?
  • [00:59:32] Handling being underleveled when hired
  • [01:01:49] What if your manager under-leveled you?
Jun 06, 202301:07:01
This Month in React – April 2023

This Month in React – April 2023

Join ⁠⁠Carl Vitullo⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Mark Erikson⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Sebastien Lorber⁠⁠ as they cover all the latest news in the React community!


May 10, 202348:34
Community Spotlight – React Miami with Michelle Bakels

Community Spotlight – React Miami with Michelle Bakels

Michelle Bakels is co-organizer of React Miami and Program Director of Developer Health at G2i, a hiring platform for Javascript and React developers with deep ties to Reactiflux! We talked about the upcoming conference, how speakers are selected, and how developer health was core to the conference. Learn more at https://www.reactmiami.com, and if you buy a ticket, use our discount code REACTIFLUX10.

https://twitter.com/ReactMiamiConf

https://twitter.com/MichelleBakels

https://www.reactmiami.com/schedule

https://www.instagram.com/ReactMiamiConf/

Topics:

  • [00:01:33] Developer health, and planning a conference
  • [00:03:01] Tejas Kumar, React as a developer health tool
  • [00:03:26] Jenny Truong, unexpected states of burnout
  • [00:03:55] Andrew Shew, mental tooling from professional baseball
  • [00:05:09] Early bird outdoor activities
  • [00:05:54] Who is the target audience for React Miami?
  • [00:07:44] Speakers Michelle is excited for
  • [00:10:55] Michelle's philosophy for organizing a conference
  • [00:15:56] Putting on a conference in 2023
  • [00:22:27] Choosing topics for the conference
  • [00:26:51] Reaching out to first-time speakers
  • [00:30:32] Tips for wanna-be speakers?
  • [00:36:37] Will talks be recorded? (yes)
  • [00:37:12] Documentary screening, afterparty, beautiful venue
  • [00:39:52] Where can people learn more?
Apr 12, 202340:37
This Month In React – March 2023

This Month In React – March 2023

Join Carl Vitullo, Mark Erikson, and Matt Pocock as we break down This Month in React. A lot of news this month, with a major progress update from the React core team, TypeScript 5.0, and TC39 meeting news. We'll break down what's new in an hour-long conversation. (Sebastien Lorber is on vacation this week, and Matt Pocock of totaltypescript.com is graciously filling in!)

Apr 04, 202354:11
Office Hours – Rewrites, with Sunil Pai and Mark Erikson

Office Hours – Rewrites, with Sunil Pai and Mark Erikson

Rewrites! Everyone wants to do one, but the software industry is littered with examples of failed rewrites. Our host Carl Vitullo is joined by Mark Erikson and Sunil Pai to talk shop about what they’ve looked like in our careers, and how to help make sure they’ll be successful.

Sunil Pai has loomed large in the React ecosystem for years, working on the core team, and he’s now building https://partykit.io. Mark Erikson needs no introduction! He’s maintained Redux and Redux Toolkit for years, is currently building http://replay.io, and has been a fixture of the Reactiflux community since the early days.

Join us and we’ll help you avoid the worst of the many footguns when rewriting software.

Topics discussed:

  • [00:01:11] First rewrite
  • [00:02:52] Some web dev history
  • [00:03:54] Mark's refactor experience
  • [00:06:36] Zero cost feedback loops
  • [00:07:26] Sunil's two largest rewrites
  • [00:10:51] Mark's experience, government project timelines
  • [00:12:59] Replay, Mark's current work
  • [00:19:29] Rewrites on small teams
  • [00:20:11] Suspense rewrite at Facebook
  • [00:24:51] Tooling support to make rewrites work
  • [00:28:56] Zero cost feedback loops, revisited
  • [00:35:27] Automation as a way to enable communication
  • [00:36:32] How to evaluate a possible rewrite
  • [00:40:09] Smell tests for justifications
  • [00:44:45] Joel's Spolksy's cultural impact on rewrites
  • [00:46:23] Readability as a justification for rewriting
  • [00:50:15] Software lifespan
Mar 23, 202351:31
Office Hours – Becoming a leader with Ankita Kulkarni

Office Hours – Becoming a leader with Ankita Kulkarni

Ankita Kulkarni is an engineer manager and educator with more than 10 years of experience as a software engineer, now teaching developers about the transition into management.


When Ankita became a manager, she had to find mentors to help her learn the subtle intricacies of being a successful manager. Now, she’s taking what she learned and teaching developers about what that transition looks like, and how to decide if that’s how you’d like to further your career.


Links referenced:



Topics discussed:


  • [00:00:17] Being laid off as a bittersweet opportunity
  • [00:01:32] Building databases at IBM and doing freelance web dev on the side
  • [00:03:31] New appreciation for coworkers after freelancing
  • [00:06:56] Getting her first management opportunity
  • [00:08:15] Leadership vs management
  • [00:11:28] Intrinsic motivation and finding a team that supports your goals
  • [00:14:03] Developer to Leader program
  • [00:15:50] How do you recognize a good leader?
  • [00:17:42] Teams as a group of individuals
  • [00:20:33] Psychological safety in software teams
  • [00:23:01] Having empathy as a leader
  • [00:27:25] Serving those you lead
  • [00:29:06] Spotting burnout as a leader
  • [00:30:27] Setting the tone on a team
  • [00:32:27] Proactively setting team norms
  • [00:34:49] Prioritizing your own growth as a leader
  • [00:36:42] The value of informal chats
  • [00:39:48] Soft skills in your career
  • [00:40:50] How to get a taste of the management track


Mar 14, 202347:51
Behind the React Documentary

Behind the React Documentary

A documentary about React, produced by Honeypot.io, was released on February 10th, and Carl Vitullo spoke with two of the people instrumental in making it happen: Ida Bechtle, staff filmmaker from Honeypot; and Christopher Chedeau, whose contributions to the React and JS ecosystem are nearly innumerable — React, React Native, Prettier, Docusaurus, Excalidraw, and more.

We talked about the documentary itself, how it got made, and some other behind-the-scenes info — an unofficial “DVD commentary” for the documentary.

  • Ida on being a 1-person production team [00:01:06]
  • Christopher Chedeau as a driving force [00:01:50]
  • Why Honeypot makes these documentaries [00:04:15]
  • Getting trapped in a park while filming [00:05:49]
  • Jordan Walke's participation [00:07:04]
  • About the focus on the early days of React [00:08:44]
  • Deciding where to focus your attention [00:10:24]
  • Going in a submarine and ignoring your manager [00:14:10]
  • Making Prettier pretty through data [00:15:15]
  • Ida's documentary process [00:16:58]
  • Christopher's involvement in the early days of Reactiflux [00:21:20]
  • Christopher's largest human-centered accomplishment [00:26:15]
Feb 24, 202337:39
Community Spotlight – Joy of React, with Josh Comeau

Community Spotlight – Joy of React, with Josh Comeau

Josh Comeau is an indie hacker, educator, and long-time member of the React community. He has a brilliant way of intuitively explaining complex subjects, and we're excited to talk with him about content creation, his experiences being an independent educator, and his new course, Joy of React. We talked about his career, job hopping, content creation, RSI injuries, replacing "best practices" with "happy practices", and more!

Some links referenced in the conversation:

Mind Body Prescription

Maxim Heckel

Nanda Syahrasyad

Paradox of Expertise

  • Early career [00:01:35]
  • Mid-career [00:04:12]
  • RSI Injury [00:07:52]
  • A finite number of keystrokes in us [00:09:40]
  • An expectation of being able to code [00:12:16]
  • Job hopping [00:13:25]
  • Unconventional job hunting tips [00:16:09]
  • Personal projects, open source, and networking [:18:46]
  • Ideation for blog posts [00:24:12]
  • Writing for advanced audiences [00:27:32]
  • Other creators and the power of interactive explanation [00:31:15]
  • Going before you think you're ready [00:36:19]
  • Ignoring imposter syndrome [00:39:01]
  • "Best practices" vs "Happy practices" [00:41:16]
  • Taking breaks, not unit testing [00:43:34]
  • How do you work in public? [00:45:50]
  • AI's impact on web development [00:49:45]
Feb 14, 202352:13
Office Hours – Entrepreneurship, fear of failure, investing, tRPC, and Qwik with Tejas Kumar

Office Hours – Entrepreneurship, fear of failure, investing, tRPC, and Qwik with Tejas Kumar

Tejas has worked in developer relations for years at companies like Vercel, Spotify, Xata, and G2i, and is now an independent educator and content creator. He's a mentor, keynote speaker, and angel investor, and we're exited to talk tech! He's super interested in edge computing, Qwik, and React. 

He and Carl talked about why he's starting a company, not letting fear of failure stop you from trying, investing, and about keeping the focus in devrel on relationships.

  • Why are you starting a company [00:00:35]
  • DevRel and community are immeasurable [00:03:30]
  • Extractive relationships in DevRel and community [05:58]
  • Swag and broken trust [00:06:50]
  • Transactional relationships [00:09:07]
  • Fear about trying something new [00:11:28]
  • Trying something new; an exercise in empathy [00:17:13]
  • Carl's past failed company [00:18:25]
  • New web technologies you're excited for [00:21:34]
  • Zod and tRPC, type safety on network calls [00:22:27]
  • Chronological Snobbery and jQuery [00:24:18]
  • React as a middle aged man [00:26:02]
  • React compared with Qwik's design goals [00:28:27]


Feb 02, 202346:08
Office Hours with Wix: Tom Raviv, Omer Kenet, & Peter Shershov

Office Hours with Wix: Tom Raviv, Omer Kenet, & Peter Shershov

Our host vcarl is joined by 3 employees of Wix to talk about the evolution of web development, developer tools, and open source:

Omer Kenet, Head of Product for Codux

Peter Shershov, Engineering Team Lead

Tom Raviv, Head of Developer Relations and Team Lead for Stylable.io

Wix has been making web development more accessible since 2006, and they're currently celebrating the release of their new project Codux, a visual IDE for React. We're excited to talk about the history of our industry and what we can learn from the golden age of frontend development.

Jan 26, 202345:59
Office Hours with Matt Pocock and MapleLeaf

Office Hours with Matt Pocock and MapleLeaf

Join the Reactiflux community

Read the transcript here

Matt Pocock is an independent educator building totaltypescript.com. Previously, he has been an employee of Vercel and Stately, and was a member of the XState core team. MapleLeaf is one of our resident TS experts and longtime server MVPs. Through our conversation, we discussed how Matt got active in open source, why he's drawn to "the weird parts" of web development, and why working as a voice coach set him up for success after transitioning to software engineering.

Jan 11, 202349:05
Office Hours with Retsam19 and MapleLeaf

Office Hours with Retsam19 and MapleLeaf

Join the Reactiflux community

Retsam19 and MapleLeaf are long-time Reactiflux MVPs who have spent countless hours helping out others in the community. Event MC'd by Carl Vitullo, and hosted on Reactiflux.

MapleLeaf and Retsam19 are two of our resident TS experts and longtime server MVPs. Both are active in the open source community as highly skilled engineers, and Retsam19 moderates the official TypeScript Discord server. Through our conversation, we discussed how we got our starts in software development and our first jobs, the value we've gotten from the online communities we're a part of (and how tools like ChatGPT might affect that in the future!), the evolution of the JS ecosystem with Bun and Deno, and more.

Some links referenced through the discussion:

Hofstadter's Law

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Refactoring UI

If you found this valuable, one way you can help support Reactiflux is through buying one of the books we recommend! Most of these links have affiliate trackers, so we receive a portion of each sale.

Dec 22, 202248:26
Office Hours with Mark Erikson and Lenz Weber-Tronic

Office Hours with Mark Erikson and Lenz Weber-Tronic

Join the Reactiflux community

Mark Erikson and Lenz Weber-Tronic are long-time Reactiflux members and maintainers of Redux. Event MC'd by Carl Vitullo, and hosted on Reactiflux.

Mark (@acemarke) has been primary maintainer of Redux for 6 years and led development of Redux Toolkit, which was a major step forward in usability for the ecosystem. He's approaching the end of his first year in a new role at Replay.io, a time-traveling browser debugger. Before that, he spent the majority of his career — over 13 years — at 1 company! 

Lenz (@phryneas) has been a software developer for 20 years, and has worked with Mark as a maintainer of Redux and Redux Toolkit since 2019. He contributed much of the TypeScript expertise that made RTK possible, and is the brains behind RTK Query. He's in the middle of changing jobs right now, from a consultancy in Berlin to Apollo, a well-known open source company.

We talk about maintaining an open source library (and the challenges of providing correct TypeScript types!), what a job search is like later in your career, and more. Some links referenced through the discussion:

Hyrum's Law

Learning and Using TypeScript as an App Dev and a Library Maintainer

Why React Context is Not a "State Management" Tool (and Why It Doesn't Replace Redux)

If you found this valuable, one way you can help support Reactiflux is through buying one of the books we recommend! Most of these links have affiliate trackers, so we receive a portion of each sale.

Dec 16, 202201:12:13