2022

rather than your reason. I think all libraries that try to abstract an underlying technology into something that it is not, and then also have to provide escape clauses for the abstraction because the user actually has to know how the underlying stuff works, are inherently broken. I also think state-based reactivity is a terrible way to reason about things because sometimes you don't want a certain part of the state to participate in the reactivity, and then at another time you do, so you have to add another state variable to say when it is OK for the other state variable to start participating in the state. It just isn't a good way to create algorithms. The whole idea of React performing a bunch of tasks in the background and updating everything when it feels like is just all a bunch of silly magic. In fact, my state of JavaScript 2021 would be pretty damning, but because of the libraries used instead of JavaScript (like React and TypeScript), not because of JavaScript. React presents a simple view of the world, but in doing so, you now have no idea what is actually happening, and you need to know that. This isn't like an array in JavaScript that is abstraction of an array in c that needs memory allocated and new arrays created and so on. You don't need to know how that works other than that the JavaScript version is a bit slower and you accept that. You need to know how all of the stuff React hides actually works to create your program. In terms of hooks, there are so many "rules". Instead of seeing an API, the API is moved into the documentation and not visible in the code until run-time when you get one of the many errors like not adding a dependency to a hook, using a hook outside of some specific area, etc, etc. It isn't JavaScript at all, so you no longer have the tools of the language to freely use to make your life easier.

you get to see the results of your work. It's satisfying to start with a blank screen or perhaps a times new roman mess, and leave it as something that looks great and works well. Backend development can sometimes be a tedious death march where all you get at the end of the day/week/sprint is not-an-error or perhaps just wiring up RPCs, or maybe if you are very lucky upgrading to a new point-release of a library with no other visible changes. Don't get me wrong, refactoring and fixing backend bugs can be satisfying, but I often find it is not as genuinely enjoyable as being able to actually see the results of your work.

Taxes are mandatory too, I pay them not because I think they're at the right level and used for the right things, but because of the practical repercussions of what would happen if I didn't and I got found out. (it shouldn't matter, but - I'm double vaccinated, mainly because the jurisdiction I live in requires it for air travel. I have no strong feelings about vaccines either way).