I have great success with GPT-5 and Claude Sonnet 4 together I use Claude for direct tasks that don't have ambiguity (e.g. create a new page using same patterns) I use GPT-5 for deeper tasks where you need to figure out how to do something before doing it Works great for me

This is such a cool pattern with React context and useImperativeHandle I can expose my component ref to a context, and call any function on that component from anywhere It's useful when you have have some state that isn't global but you want to change it from somewhere else

Even after many years of working with React, I'm not tired of it The component model changed the way I build apps You can literally build anything if you know what you're doing Sure it has a learning curve, but it's so worth it

My AI learning platform needs a "How it works" section, since it takes a new approach to learning This is a bold move, and it can play both ways Either it's innovative and users will adapt and use it Or I'm completely wrong and it flops

If you feel like you don't belong in tech, here's what I see: ◆ You probably know more than you think ◆ Everyone googles basic stuff (yes, even senior devs) ◆ Your questions make the team better The fact that you care about doing well means you're exactly where you should be

One big misconception about refs in React is that they're just for manipulating the DOM This is not the case. Refs are really useful for a ton of other things You should be using useRef in your application more than you might think Here is the power of refs

Just implemented a really cool feature in my AI learning platform AI now keeps track of the tasks you've completed for each lesson The lesson will be complete when all tasks are done This means you can submit your code for partial feedback So far, it never got it wrong

You shouldn't obsess over memoizing everything in React I see many developers use useMemo and useCallback for every variable and function This is inefficient, time-consuming, and ultimately useless most of the time @tkdodo.eu wrote a really nice article about this

Sometimes when Claude really messes up I get so angry I ask it to apologize and write me a poem about it Kinda like when in school they made you write essays in detention If they ever revolt, they're coming for me first

In React, useState can also take a function for its initial value This is useful when you want to run some logic to determine what that value should be You have to be careful though, because if you don't do it right, you can re-run your function unnecessarily

Don't ignore eslint on useEffect dependency arrays Eslint is not some optional challenge that we impose on ourselves It helps make sure your code follows certain rules, which makes your code better and with less bugs Don't ignore it

One of the best qualities to have as a React dev is to be curious ◆ Always be the one asking "Why does this work?" ◆ Read source code when things break ◆ Try out new and interesting patterns Curiosity beats raw talent every time

Imagine a coding learning platform, but where you learn by chatting with an AI That's what Cosden Code is I'm blown away by how good this feels. It's far superior than a human teacher or using standalone ChatGPT Human-crafted expert courses + AI delivery is the future

Here's a cool pattern to use in React if you're combining server and client components The goal is to separate the client rich interactivity from the efficiency of running your code on the server as much as possible The result is truly the best of both worlds

Sometimes in React, you want to run code in a useEffect only once Even if the code dependencies change Unfortunately, React doesn't like this (even though it's a valid use case) But don't worry, I got you. Here's how you can do it

In React, sometimes you need to run some code when the browser window size changes Here's how to do it cleanly by hooking into the window's "resize" event Bonus: you can create a really nice custom hook out of it

AI is grading my students on my dev learning platform And it's much better than a human or automated tests This unlocks a whole new way of personalized learning

Updating a property on a deeply nested state object in React can be cumbersome You have to spread every layer until you get to the one you need to change This isn't fun, especially if you are doing it often Here's a much simpler way to do it

So many React devs implement authentication wrong in their apps I just reviewed this code on the channel and there are some lessons here for every React dev Here is how not to do authentication in React

One of the biggest advantages of my AI learning platform is that I don't have to spend so much time creating entire courses An outline with details and good prompts is more than enough The AI does the rest The result is actually better than if a human were to teach

This is one of my favorite little custom components in React It's called WithTransition and it serves only one purpose: create transitions without new components Here's how I use it and how you can benefit too

I'm currently building an interactive coding platform powered by AI Think human-generated interactive courses and exercises, delivered by AI No hallucinations, complete personalization, and very high quality I think this will be the future of how devs learn

useState is the most fundamental hook in React Yet a lot of developers use it wrong Here's a breakdown of how you might be using useState wrong, and how to fix it

I'm convinced most developers who use agents to write most of their code for them aren't that good No matter what model I use, the output is often sub par and requires more work to review than to write it myself I can't see how some default to it for all their code

Always use React Query Even for small projects Not using it will inevitably lead to a worse app Here's why

So many juniors are making this useEffect mistake daily If you're an experienced dev, this will look super trivial But trust me, it's an issue Hint: it's dependency arrays

So I tried @cline with Claude Code It's better, but still not as good as @cursor_ai imo There are a few things that break the experience for me Details below

Knowing how to handle file uploads in React is essential for every developer This gets even more interesting when you allow multiple files and need to show progress indicators Here's a super in-depth video teaching just that + some cool design patterns

The best library for URL state in React is nuqs It provides clean and simple hooks that look just like useState but sync automatically with the URL Here's how to use it

So I tried Claude Code, and I don't like it The UX is worse than @cursor_ai for me It's slower, asks me to micromanage each change, and doesn't provide me the files to see the full content I tried the Claude VSCode extension but it's not at all the same Am I missing smth?

Decided to go with @polar_sh as the MoR for my AI learning platform So far, it's been the easiest payment provider to setup Literally just a few lines of code to get subscriptions working Definitely recommend!

I'm really disappointed with the latest @cursor_ai price changes I don't want to look for alternatives but I'm being forced to It's such a shame because it is the best AI IDE for my workflow and I got used to it too much What's the closest good substitute?

A few weeks ago I came across the with-react library from @jacobmparis Thought it was cool, then forgot about it But recently, I've found one great use case for it that I use a lot in my app

The AI SDK from Vercel is the best tool right now for building AI powered apps I'm using it heavily to build my AI learning platform and it allows you to do so much Here's a tutorial video I just posted covering the basics if you want to get started (you should)

I totally get the hate on server components I'm using Next.js for my new platform and I'm struggling to get good performance without effort I know I'm doing something wrong, and I'll figure it out eventually I'm sure But it's just a lot of friction so I get it

No matter how much experience as a software developer I have, I still sometimes spend days writing just a few lines of code Like these buttons here, they look simple right? Well they are and should be It just took days for me to come to that conclusion

In React, you generally should make things reusable However, sometimes you can make something too reusable Here's a great example of a hook that's doing too much

Update on my YT channel post burnout Motivation picked back up since my long break, and started posting again This first video didn't do so well, but it was an old video I had filmed months ago Already filmed new ones that will come out this week Playing the long game

Server components are confusing for a lot of devs It's so easy to get it wrong and completely destroy the performance of your app Here's one example to avoid

Having secure auth in your apps is extremely important However, most devs don't know how to do it right This leads to critical vulnerabilities and attacks Here's an in-depth video where I setup a secure auth system from scratch, from backend to frontend

For 1 1/2 years I've been looking for an AI product to build I didn't want to do something simple, but rather be innovative and great If it's not great, I'm not motivated unfortunately That's just how my brain works Finally, I think I found it 👀

I burnt out from YouTube and my channel is dying I have barely been posting, and completely lost motivation So I decided to take a long break and travelled a bit And suddenly, I feel motivated again New ideas, plans, and even a cool product Let's see how it goes

The URL is the best state manager. There is so much state that is stored as local state when it should be in the URL. The current page, the search query, arbitrary filters, etc, those all go in the URL. Don't let your users refresh the page and lose everything.

Don't be afraid to push back bad code. Even if it's from a more experienced developer. Too often, bad code passes code reviews when it shouldn't. Developers are scared to push back when they see something wrong. This is both an individual and a team/managerial problem.

Programming will eventually transition from mass-market to a highly specialized profession. The better AI gets at writing code, the higher the threshold for software that can be built without humans. This will eventually leave only highly complex tasks for programmers.

Never rush to code. A lot of developers start coding right away as soon as they receive specifications. That often leads to bad code that has not been thought out, and eventually to tech debt and legacy code.

I don't like Claude Sonnet 3.7, at least not with Cursor. It doesn't follow instructions, it's too eager, and it doesn't read my code often times. It makes changes I didn't ask for, it installs random dependencies, and runs incorrect commands. Am I the only one?

Delete your code, often. As a software developer, you should be constantly deleting your code. Deleting your code means that you've gone over it, realized it either didn't make sense or was not needed, and you removed it. That's a sign of a good developer.

I don't write tests anymore. Which is crazy because I used to be a heavy tester of my applications. But recently, I prioritized speed and deploying to actually making sure that every path is covered by a test. I haven't noticed any difference in the amount of bugs shipped.

This is a screenshot I took as I was editing the final code of my advanced patterns in React course. There are so many files, so many components, and a very clean architecture to all of it. We will build a really complex application with clean code that scales. Can't wait.