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+Document: WM-064                                                 P. Webb
+Category: Programming                                         2025.03.04
+
+                        Why I won't touch React
+
+Abstract
+
+   Outside of my $DAYJOB
+
+Body
+
+   JavaScript frameworks are a dime a dozen and everyone has their
+   favorites. HTMX, Solid, Svelte/SvelteKit (my favorite), Next, Remix,
+   &c. The industry has long decided on the framework to rule them all,
+   React. Which is fine, I guess. Cool.
+
+   My problem is when the industry decides on A Thing™, everyone
+   gravitates to this and opposing that can sometimes be difficult.
+
+   Remember "mobile‑first design/development"? This never made sense to
+   me. We don't code on mobile devices, we code on desktop devices…so
+   why not _start_ coding for desktop and use media queries to to
+   hide/remove elements from mobile views? Being a lowly entry‑level dev
+   meant I had no power to push back so it was during this era that I
+   decided to apply common sense (to me) coding practices to
+   personal projects.
+
+   The industry has since moved on and replaced that practice with
+   proper responsive design.
+
+   My reasons for being anti‑React isn't a knee‑jerk reaction to being a
+   "hipster" (anti whatever's popular), I actually have a few reasons:
+
+   1. My mental model doesn't mesh with how React works
+   2. The way React manages state has always been weird
+   3. The internet is rife with outdated/opinionated tutorials
+
+   Keep in mind that I am not up‑to‑date on how React is nowadays so
+   maybe my issues with it are expired.
+
+   I'll contrast the reasons I don't like React with the reasons I
+   like Svelte:
+
+   1. Svelte is the closest to writing vanilla HTML/CSS/JS that I've
+      found…and I can easily use Sass and TypeScript instead.
+   2. Until Svelte 5, managing state in Svelte has been easier for me to
+      grok than React. Svelte 5 is quite helpful in their typings when
+      you try to mix the old way of managing state with their new way.
+   3. I've never been confused with Svelte tutorials. It may help that
+      Svelte hasn't had many drastic changes over the years and, being a
+      smaller framework means there's no SEO stuffing or whatever it is
+      people do to get more clicks on their ad‑riddled site.
+
+   The last point is rectified these days by a good search engine.
+   Google hasn't been good for quite some time but most people don't
+   care so my last point still stands. Paying for Kagi makes sense for
+   *me* though.
+
+   I will say that React makes sense to use if you have need for React
+   Native. From what I understand, React Native is fantastic and comes
+   with less headaches than using literally anything else for building
+   Android and Apple mobile apps from the same codebase.
+
+   Every "Who's Hiring" thread on HackerNews is littered with React
+   experience of at least a few years. Sometimes a poster will append,
+   "or relevant experience" but let's be real, experience in another
+   framework probably doesn't matter. Job postings on LinkedIn are the
+   same but I'd wager HN is better because at least you can contact a
+   real person to inquire further.
+
+   This isn't a bitter blog post btw! I'm more than happy to stubbornly
+   wait this phase out just like I did with "mobile‑first design",
+   "should designers code?" (designers should absolutely code, it's
+   awesome), and so on. Did you know I was actually chastised for
+   spending my lunch breaks as a lowly designer turned developer to read
+   up on design trends? Why is what I'm doing bothering YOU?
+
+   Anyhoo, learn React if you gotta (or geniunely want to), I don't
+   care. I'll be here in 10 years ranting about the next tech industry
+   darling that doesn't make sense to me.
+
+   🕸️