Take your React beyond the tutorial

React is here to stay. It solves many problems you may not even know existed. These essays are the good stuff I learned over the years.

Learning from tutorials is easy. You follow some steps, learn a smol lesson, and feel like you got dis 💪

Then comes the interview, a real world problem, or a question from the boss. Your mind goes blank. Shit, how does this work again ...

Happens to everyone. Building is harder than recognizing and the real world is a mess! Nothing fits in neat little boxes you learned about in tutorials.

That's where my emails come in – lessons from experience. Building production software :)

Leave your email and get the React email Series - a series of curated essays on building with React. Borne from experience, seasoned with over 12+ years of hands-on practice building the engineering side of growing SaaS companies.

Latest React articles from Swizec

Update state during render, better explained

A few readers wrote in to say that the React Can Update State During Render email last week made no sense. Here's a better explanation.
July 7th, 2023

React can update state during render

An unexpected feature of React: updating state during render. It's a UX and performance optimization
June 30th, 2023

Building browser extensions with NextJS

NextJS can be used to build browser extensions. This is a novel way of building extensions that allows developers to use familiar tools and technologies. Here's how
February 8th, 2023

My biggest React App performance boost was a backend change

Performance lives in the unlikliest of places. Follow the metrics.
January 31st, 2023

Async React with NextJS 13

We look at React's native async support and how to use it in a NextJS 13 app. Learn how to use async components, parallel loading states, and caching with React.js and NextJS 13.
January 14th, 2023

Reader question: useReducer or XState?

Following up from my article about XState and Stately.ai, fellow reader S. asked if `useReducer` could ever be relevant when using state machines in React code. Yes! Here's how
November 11th, 2022

When your brain is breaking, try Stately.ai

Two years ago I wrote about using XState after building a UI interaction so twisted my brain leaked out my ears. It helped. Now the creators have made something even better – Stately.ai 😍
November 8th, 2022

useCallback is a code smell

One of my favorite ways to simplify and de-gotcha React code is to rip out all the useCallback and useMemo drama. 90% of the time you don't need it.
September 16th, 2022

Learnings about the future of the web from Reactathon

The first in-person conference in years! It was wonderful 🤩 - Remix is great - Serverless at edge is the future - GDPR does not play with 👆
May 7th, 2022

Adding categories to a Gatsby blog (for better SEO)

One of my biggest frustrations since migrating swizec.com from Wordpress to Gatsby was that I never added categories. Always wanted to, never did. Thought it would be super hard. Gatsby made it painless
March 29th, 2022

A new VSCode extension makes state machines shine on a team

When you grok state machines, a new world of computational beauty and software design opens in front of your eyes. Things that used to be hard become easy. The impossible becomes possible. And you turn into that annoying team member.
February 25th, 2022

How to add Typeform as a Gatsby source

Every year I ask readers if they're enjoying my newsletter. Then fail to use those responses 😅 This year I said heck it and built a /testimonials page that shows everyone's feedback raw from Typeform. Here's how.
January 25th, 2022

You can use React Query for slow computation, not just API

You can use the ergonomics of React Query for any slow operation and it's wonderful.
November 8th, 2021

Why I'm excited about React 18 – talk

React 18 is coming soon. I hope 🤞 Here's a talk I gave exploring its implications and showing off demos with working code.
November 1st, 2021

Build simple backends with Gatsby Serverless Functions

Until recently adding a little backend to your Gatsby site meant 2 options: 1. Climbing the AWS learning curve 2. Rewrite with NextJS Now there's an /api directory 😱
August 24th, 2021

React 18 and the future of async data

Friend, I have glimpsed the future and it is amazing. React 18 is shipping with <Suspense> and startTransition for deferred component rendering, but not data loading. That's coming in a future 18.x version.
July 22nd, 2021

Hacking the React AST for fun and profit – #CodeWithSwiz ep34

This is hold my beer level of hackery. It didn't work but we learned lots in the process.
June 29th, 2021

A better React 18 startTransition demo

Demoing startTransition is hard. Modern computers are too fast 😅 – Dan Abramov, a React core team member, helped me fix it up. Here's what I learned
June 16th, 2021

Trying out React 18 Alpha

I read everything about React 18 Alpha, trawled through the work group, and ran some experiments. Here's what you'll wanna know.
June 11th, 2021

A fun security bug with static rendering – CodeWithSwiz #31

The flash of unlocked content is great fun for any paywall
June 1st, 2021

Build privacy-focused blazing fast tweet embeds – CodeWithSwiz 30

Twitter embeds every tweet on your page as an iframe. Loads 1.2MB of JavaScript, makes 20+ HTTP requests and uses 100+ DOM nodes. 💩
May 12th, 2021

Twitter embeds without JavaScript, pt1 – #CodeWithSwiz 29

Continuing our quest for better Lighthouse scores, more reader privacy, and less JavaScript we attacked the next biggest culprit 👉 Twitter.
May 4th, 2021

2 quick tips for 250% better Lighthouse scores – CodeWithSwiz 28

Your site may be fast for users, but Google don't care. Official metrics or bust.
April 27th, 2021

Variants – a quick tip for better React components

Reusable components like to grow boolean props for different situations and complexity soon blows up. Variant props are the perfect solution.
March 2nd, 2021

A TypeScript trick for reusable hooks

Reusable hooks are all fun and games until TypeScript starts yelling at you about incompatible types.
February 19th, 2021

React Bricks - visual blocks editor for NextJS #CodeWithSwiz 22

Tried a new visual editor for NextJS and CreateReactApp. Got a site up in 20min 🤘
February 9th, 2021

SSR, SSRwR, SSG, CSR, WTFBBQ???

These abbreviations are getting out of hand. It's like a bad interviewer's wet dream.
November 24th, 2020

Gatsby to NextJS pt1, server-side-render or server-side-generate?

Gatsby and NextJS do similar things differently. One is better for websites, the other for webapps. In episode 17 of CodeWithSwiz we explore the biggest difference.
November 19th, 2020

Refactoring a useReducer to XState, pt1 – CodeWithSwiz 11

XState promises to be like useReducer+Context combined and the simplest way to handle complex state in React apps. But can it deliver? On this episode of #CodeWithSwiz, we gave it a shot.
October 8th, 2020

Prefetch data with React Query and NextJS – CodeWithSwiz 8, 9

Prefetching lets you start React apps without loading spinners. Gatsby introduced this concept with `staticQuery`, react-query and NextJS make the pattern easier 😍
September 30th, 2020

Using JavaScript to commit to Github – CodeWithSwiz 7

Update code with a JavaScript function? Easier than you think 😍
September 17th, 2020

Why NextJS /api routes are fab – CodeWithSwiz 6

In this episode of CodeWithSwiz, we tried NextJS's support for /api routes – code running on the backend. In a word – Wow
September 13th, 2020

How React Query gives you almost everything you thought you needed GraphQL for

GraphQL solves every problem you've ever had talking to APIs on the frontend. Mention a switch to GraphQL to your team and they think it's a joke. Rewrite our entire app? oh you jokester. React Query is the perfect middle ground ❤️
September 7th, 2020

When your brain is breaking, try XState

August 10th, 2020

Why react-hook-form is my new favorite form library

August 3rd, 2020

Wormhole state management

June 29th, 2020

Why you should build a form generator

Lemme guess, every project involves 1 or 2 forms and they're all the friggen same. You got forms coming out the wazoo. Render fields. Connect to state. Add field validation. Detect submit. Add form validation. Send fetch request. Repeat.
April 27th, 2020