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Two big projects for the year 2021
February 9, 2021
Oh hi, I’m Sid. You’re getting this email because you signed up for my newsletter on React and side projects, but if you’d like to leave, there's a...
How CodeSandbox adapts to VSCode themes
January 20, 2021
One of the first projects I did at codesandbox was to improve the theming system. CodeSandbox supports a bunch of vscode themes out of the box + you can drop...
How to ask for effective code reviews
January 9, 2021
Code reviews are a fairly common practice in engineering teams. But, they are often implemented poorly without getting the benefits. How not to ask for an...
Hello old friend, 2020: A year in pictures
January 3, 2021
Hi, I'm Sid. If you signed up for my newsletter any time in last year and this is the first email you're recieving, welcome! you probably know me from...
42. How do you debug build tooling?
June 14, 2019
While I'm working on shelf (the database for javascript developers), I found myself fighting build tools. You know the feeling, you are writing the config...
41. Will it scale?
June 7, 2019
This isn’t a post about React or javascript or CSS. It’s totally cool if you want to skip this one and come back next week :) It’s been a weird week for me 😅...
40. CSS Variables
May 31, 2019
I have been playing around a dark theme for my blog. I really like the colors but it’s not as readable as the light mode yet 🤷♀️ Let’s keep colors and...
39. So you want to start a blog
May 17, 2019
I asked this question on twitter last week Do I know some who has started a blog/newsletter with the hopes of writing regularly but stopped after a few...
38. Re-invent all the wheels!
May 10, 2019
Today’s post contains a lot of code, it reads better on my blog: https://sid.studio/post/reinvent We have a tendency of ignoring ideas we don’t understand. I...
37. Why do we keep talking about CSS-in-JS?
May 3, 2019
Remember the first time you wrote some html/css? It was amazing, right? <div style="color: blue">Hello world</div> So simple, so pure. Then, of course, the...
36. Lessons learned from starting a small conference
April 19, 2019
I'm prepping up for a big project right now. And it's definitely out of my area of expertise. My heart is excited but my brain tells me I have no business...
35. Shotgun surgery and React components
April 5, 2019
Last week I wrote a post about the best time to write tests and hinted at preparatory refactors. In this post, we dig into the implementation details with...
34. The best time to write tests
March 29, 2019
Me, from the past: “Writing tests for my code is pointless. I just tested my code, writing tests for them doesn’t add any extra value. And every time I...
33. Starting from scratch
March 22, 2019
I have some big news, but let’s build up to it. 😉 Starting anything from scratch is scary. Software, jobs, anything really. I have started from scratch...
Not the usual newsletter
March 15, 2019
Hi! This week’s newsletter is a bit different. I don’t have a brand new post because I have been working on a React Hooks course. I wrote half of a post...
32. Pirates and CSS animations
March 8, 2019
Hi! For my course on React Hooks, I have to make a bunch of animations for it to be interesting. A few folks asked how do those animations work… You’ll be...
31. Repurpose your work
March 1, 2019
Hi! This week's newsletter is a short one because I'm speaking at a conference on Saturday (tomorrow!) and haven't written down my talk yet. (Don't tell the...
30. How to get a job without experience
February 22, 2019
I had a conversation with someone on twitter last week, and I think their situation was very relatable. I've been an Android Developer for the last 1.5 years...
29. Compound.Components and Context
February 15, 2019
Today, let's talk about forms. You have probably read a bunch of articles about state management in forms, this isn't one of them. Instead, I'd like to talk...
28. Rethinking the component model with Hooks
February 8, 2019
Big announcement first! I'm working on a React Hooks course - Learn React Hooks by building a game. I really believe it is going to be amazing. Visit...
27. Just use children
February 1, 2019
This is part of a series of posts about writing good components No, this isn't a post about child employment. It's a post about using children as props. Wait...
26. Forming habits that stick
January 25, 2019
At the end of my end-of-year review post, I ended the post with: To meet my goals, I will need some structure and habits to get me there. But that’s a post...
25. Beware of the Apropcalypse!
January 18, 2019
You can continue reading this post on your email or read it on my blog where the image syntax highlighting looks way better 🎨 Click here to continue reading...
24. Order of props matters!
January 11, 2019
This is part of a series of posts about writing component API for great developer experience. Here’s part #1 and #2 if you missed it: Writing good component...
23. Don't set new year goals
January 4, 2019
Happy new year! The new year is here, full of exciting possibilities. It’s that magical time when you contemplate if you wasted the entire year and make...
22. Give names to behaviors not interactions
December 28, 2018
This is part of a series of posts about writing component API for great developer experience. Here’s part #1 if you missed it: Don’t create conflicting props...
21. Don't write conflicting props
December 21, 2018
When it comes to React components, props are the API that developers consume. A good API should be obvious, something the developer can guess. You want to...
20. Obsession treadmill
December 14, 2018
I almost didn’t send this post. It feels silly to talk about what goes in my head. “What if people judge me or think I’m just entitled?” But then, I was...
19. Let me teach you React Hooks!
December 7, 2018
If you’re in the React world, you already knew this post was coming 😋 If you’d like to see a quick video version of this post instead, just click here....
18. Spacing for reusable components is hard!
November 30, 2018
When I started working on cosmos, I didn’t think spacing is a big deal. Just add some padding and margins to your component and it looks good. Let’s take the...
17. Standup Driven Development
November 26, 2018
I usually send these on Friday, it’s Monday now, better late than never? Now, that I’m back from my break, I’ll try to get into my regular rhythm. If you...
16. Design systems for the rest of us
November 16, 2018
Hi, it’s November. As promised, I’m back! This year is going by so fast, don’t know about you but I’m kind of freaking out about it. Okay, so design systems....
15. Burnout
October 16, 2018
If you haven't noticed, I didn't send a newsletter for almost 3 weeks. Why? Burnout is real and it will creep up on you Basics first: what's burnout? Burnout...
14. Taking one step back and four steps forward
September 23, 2018
This week’s newsletter is late because I’ve spent the last week with my team standing in front of whiteboards planning the big v1.0 release of cosmos (the...
13. Should frontend developers learn data structures?
September 14, 2018
I love receiving replies to this newsletter. I read + reply to each and everyone of them. One of the recurring questions is about getting jobs :) Here's a...
12. Rebuilding my website with gatsby in 15 minutes
September 7, 2018
The fomo is real. I’ve been meaning to try out Gatsby for a while now. I have a hard time learning a new tech for the sake of learning. Unless I have a use-...
11. On Golden Handcuffs
August 31, 2018
This one phrase came up multiple time last week in articles I read/podcasts I listened to. I was familiar with the term but this got me thinking again. Let...
🔟Generating images on the fly using puppeteer
August 24, 2018
Thank god it’s friday? May your code work nicely and your bugs get fixed automatically over the weekend. I finished the first video for my React course! I’ve...
9️⃣ Contributing to open source is overrated
August 17, 2018
Before we start, did you know I’m creating a React course based on a game? I’m really excited about it, it’s going to be so good! Check it out here. Let me...
8⃣ Video games and React state
August 10, 2018
There is a lot we can learn from video games. Modern games render hi-def graphics based on heavy calculations and still run smoothly. One of the ways they do...
Thanks for signing up!
August 8, 2018
Thanks for signing up for my newsletter! You can read past issues on sid.studio/newsletter Let me first introduce myself I'm Sid 👋, I do a bunch of side...
1⃣ How do you decide what to work on?
June 23, 2018
New newsletter, who dis? Let me introduce myself I'm Sid 👋, I do a bunch of side projects, open source stuff and work on the design systems team at Auth0. I...