Code & Curiosity by Maximilian Schwarzmüller

What a week in AI? Well, okay, I guess every week is "packed with announcements". But with Google IO, tons of projects and the Claude 4 model releases, there WAS a lot going on. Time to unpack!

There's a lot of hype around LLMs & generative AI - especially when it comes to "AI Agents". I don't have a super agent (or an army of agents) that does work for me. But I got a couple of use-cases that really help me get more done!

LLMs often default to a single tech stack (like React, Tailwind, ShadCN). This tendency could reduce competition and innovation in the long run, potentially leading to a development monoculture.

I've slept for too long on open LLMs like Gemma, Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek etc. They're AMAZING! Using them is simple (with LM Studio or Ollama) and they're not far behind the "big models" you can access via ChatGPT etc. At least in my experience. I'm using them for all kinds of tasks...

React Compiler RC (Release Candidate) was released! Almost one year after its initial release (back then in experimental status), it's now almost ready for production use. And it can save you LOTS OF time of writing useMemo(), useCallback() and memo()!

Google released a couple of AI Agent related products & services! The A2A protocol is maybe the most interesting initiative. Also because it kind of clashes with MCP. Or does it?

Microsoft & VS Code are striking back against Cursor & Windsurf. And not just by making GitHub Copilot better...

It's essentially ONE key feature I really don't want to miss anymore. Well, maybe 1.5 features...

MCP has been a hot buzzword. But what exactly is that model context protocol thing about? And who do LLMs actually use tools?

Obviously, parts of the web dev community are upset: Why didn't they choose Rust? Well, turns out they had good reasons!

Originally coined by Andrej Karpathy, it describes a way of coding where you don't write any code but you just ask (and blindly trust) LLMs.

React Router 7 is pretty amazing. It always has been. But v7 especially is exciting because it offers "library mode" and "framework mode". But "library mode" then actually can be used in at least two different ways. And the docs don't necessarily cover that very well...

ChatGPT & co are becoming better and more capable all the time. Soon, every human will be able to use AI assistants to do pretty much anything they want. Maybe. But maybe, we'll also see a different outcome.

Create React App (CRA) has officially been marked as "deprecated" now. Great - the ecosystem moved on to Vite years ago already. The React is not inclined to do so, though.

More money is thrown at AI models, that seem to become more capable & cheaper. Is it "Game Over" for us humans?

2024 is (almost) over. And it's been a difficult year for web devs. At least for some. At the same time, it's been a year that saw multiple big releases - like React 19 and Angular 18 & 19. But what else?

It's been a rough 1.5 years for (web) developers. Layoffs, AI and the general economy are all not helping. So....should you still learn how to code?

As always, backwards-compatible (though there is one big breaking change!) but packed with features!

TailwindCSS is an amazing CSS framework that changed how many (most?) web developers style their websites. But vanilla CSS also developed quite a bit over all those years. And it has certain advantages over TailwindCSS.

Astro is a really amazing web framework. But it seems as if not that many developers are actually using it. That's too bad!

You can see AI as a threat or embrace those tools to boost your productivity!

When will React 19 stable be release? And why is its release delayed? Max takes a closer look in this episode.

Generative AI had a huge impact. And it's probably only getting started. Or maybe it isn't ... maybe it'll have less of an impact than many people think. But it definitely has one huge problem right now, in my opinion.

In (web) development, there's always something new to learn. And, yes, this can feel overwhelming. But it's actually amazing!

We spend a lot of time writing code. Therefore, your development environment should be set up to make you as productive as possible. But you can also overdo it...

Of course, as a developer, you write code. Therefore, you must know the language and libraries you're working with. But what about other tools? Git? Docker? The Command Line?

Express.js dominates the Node.js framework landscape. It seems as if almost every Node.js developer is using it. But why is that the case?

Building a SaaS (or any web-based project) has never been easier. There are plenty of frameworks and technologies to pick from. But which one is best? Can the JavaScript ecosystem keep up with Laravel etc?

The Remix team announced that they would pause working on Remix and instead focus on bringing all core Remix features over to React Router. Because Remix already was essentially "React Router++".

Two major frameworks (yes, React is a library .... ) and two major versions. Here's my opinion on both!

Node.js allows you to run JavaScript outside of the browser. So does Bun, Deno and some other JavaScript runtimes that emerged over the last couple of years. All these runtimes were created to solve certain problems that were introduced by Node.js. But should you make the move away from Node.js?

You're preferring const over let? Think again! You're using Angular? Is that a joke? You get the point ... I really hate that part of social media and the "developer world". What about you?

In my early days as a web developer, I got started with HTML, CSS, JS and PHP. Nowadays, modern fullstack JavaScript / JSX code can kind of feel like that basic PHP code I wrote back then. But is it really the same?

With Next.js 14, the "App Router" became fully stable, since the last missing piece - "Server Actions" - were marked as stable. I've worked with it for multiple months now. Would I recommend it?

There's an endless amount of programming languages out there. And new ones are released frequently. So ... how many should you learn and know?

There's been some debate whether services like Vercel and Netlify are overpriced and you should use a VPS for hosting websites instead. The answer is a solid "it depends", but there are some obvious decision factors you should consider.

As you're growing as a developer, it's easy to introduce unnecessary complexities and abstractions into your code. But you might not always need the most modular and flexible code. Most of the time, simpler is better.

HTMX is a JavaScript library that essentially extends HTML and allows you to send AJAX requests (and handle responses + update the UI) without writing any JavaScript code. It's amazing!

As a (frontend) JavaScript developer, you got plenty of options and alternatives. You can learn Angular, React, Vue, Svelte, SolidJS and many other frameworks and libraries. But is that good or bad? That's what Max discusses in this episode.

Devin - the world's first AI software engineer - was announced. What does that mean for software developers? And how does it actually work? Let's take a look!

Max explains why he thinks that you might not need to master JS before diving into React, Angular or other frameworks.

Max explains why he thinks that most JS developers benefit from learning TypeScript.

Metaframeworks like NextJS, Remix or Nuxt have become very popular over the last ~2 years. Indeed, React is now recommending NextJS as the best way of getting started with React. So will those metaframeworks replace "vanilla React" etc?

Max analyzes the official React 19 announcement blog post and explores all the exciting features that will be included in this upcoming major React version.

In this podcast episode, I discuss the dangers of getting caught in a bubble of strong opinions and how it can be counterproductive for web developers, especially those who are new to the field. I explore the fact that the majority of websites on the internet are not powered by the latest and greatest technologies, but rather by older, more established ones. I also encourage developers to focus on learning the fundamentals of web development rather than chasing every new trend.

Join me as I explain which key decision factors could be considered when choosing a modern frontend JavaScript framework or library. I compare the most popular libraries / frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, SolidJS) and also share my personal favorite.

2023 has been the year of AI. Barely a week went by without some new AI service or model being announced. In this episode we'll dive into the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and its potential impact on the world of software development. Max explores three main scenarios that could become reality in an AI-powered future. And, actually, one scenario is already reality! But the good news is: The other two scenarios are not likely to materialize any time soon.