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A podcast for developers interested in building great software products. Hosted by Adam Wathan.

136: Michael Chan - React Is Not a Rails Competitor

In this episode, Adam is joined by Michael Chan to talk about how people who identify as React developers are building real web applications, and why it seems like nobody is talking about databases or background jobs anymore.

Topics include:

  • What do people actually mean when they say "I used to use Rails, but now I use React"?
  • Why back-end development is still a crucial part of building any web application
  • What third-party services people are using to try and replace custom back-end code
  • Would you default to building a Rails back-end for a React side project, or is your instinct to try and use third-party services only?
  • How far do you think front-end-first frameworks like Next.js are going to get their hands dirty in the back-end?
  • Are new developers missing out by starting with React and not realizing how important tools like Rails and Laravel are for building complete production-ready applications?
  • Are relational databases legacy tech or are they underappreciated?

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