✂️ Less code, better logic

Hey there.

Welcome to Full Stack Focus. 👋 

Here’s everything you need to know this week in the world of full-stack development.

Programming

💼 Use AI to land your dream job
Land your dream job faster with AIApply. Their AI instantly creates tailored resumes, cover letters, and follow-up emails that match each job description. Apply to more positions in less time, with personalized applications that get noticed by recruiters. Turn hours of application work into minutes.

👨‍💻 Being good isn’t enough
Being technically good gets you noticed early on, but it stops being enough as you grow, everyone around you is good too. The real leverage comes from combining technical ability, product thinking, project execution, and people skills. You’ll improve at these over time, but progress speeds up when you seek feedback and stay humble. Don’t wait for perfect plans, take initiative, work in the open, and push yourself where you’re weakest.

🧠 Where's the Shovelware? Why AI Coding Claims Don't Add Up
Despite big claims from AI coding tools and widespread adoption, there’s no measurable increase in shipped software, no boom, no shovelware surge. One developer ran his own six-week test and found AI often made him slower, aligning with broader studies. Charts across major platforms show flat output, not exponential growth. And yet, companies are making hiring and firing decisions based on the myth of 10x AI productivity. If AI coding was truly that powerful, we’d see it, but we don’t.

⛪️ Laravel creator urges devs to avoid over-engineering
Taylor Otwell, creator of Laravel, warns against overengineering and bypassing framework conventions, calling overly clever code a potential "smell." On the Maintainable.fm podcast, he emphasized keeping software simple, disposable, and easy to change.

🙅 Saying NO is not a free action in the world of software engineering
Saying no is hard, and costly. While we praise it as a life skill, we often ignore the emotional toll it takes, especially on those who care the most. In workplaces, refusal can feel risky, lead to burnout, or harm team dynamics. Accepting feels easier, safer, and more rewarding in the moment. But without honest conversations and fair systems, the burden of always saying yes quietly crushes the few who never refuse.

😲 Python has had async for 10 years, why isn't it more popular?
Async in Python has been around for a decade, but it's still not mainstream — mostly because its benefits are limited to network I/O, while disk I/O, subprocesses, and other tasks still block or need workarounds. Maintaining both sync and async APIs is painful, and the GIL complicates concurrency. While FastAPI's rise shows async can thrive, new features like free-threading in Python 3.14 may finally unlock broader use without the overhead of coroutines.

Front-End

🤔 React library that is considered to have very good documentation
In a recent r/reactjs thread, developers debated which React libraries have the best documentation. TanStack Query earned high praise for its clarity and examples, while other TanStack tools like Table drew criticism. Redux Toolkit, thanks to updated guides and migration paths, was also highlighted, along with Mantine and React Hook Form (though RHF’s docs drew mixed reviews).

📱React Native 1.0 is coming
React Native 1.0 is finally on the horizon, with plans to be revealed soon following the announcement at React Universe Conf. Recent updates include a faster release cycle (6x/year), stable public APIs, and new workflows to catch breaking changes, all setting the stage for a polished 1.0 launch.

📃 Building SSR with Vite
Migrating from Next.js to Vite for SSR? Patron built a custom getStaticProps replacement using Express, Vite, and React 18's streaming SSR. Their loadDataForUrl function gives route-based data fetching, with full control and fast performance. While setup is more manual, the result is a flexible, scalable SSR system with sub-100ms response times and better dev experience than Next.js.

➰ AI agents and the web - A proposal to keep developers in the loop
WebMCP is a new proposal that lets web developers expose custom actions to AI agents directly via the browser. Instead of scraping the DOM or parsing screenshots, agents can call developer-defined tools like add-todo through a browser-embedded MCP server. This keeps developers in control, reduces ambiguity, and enables more reliable interactions between AI and web apps. Edge and Google are already prototyping support.

⬆️ Deriving Client State from Server State
Instead of syncing client and server state manually with useEffect, TkDodo suggests deriving client state directly from server data. For example, rather than clearing an invalid selectedUserId, just return null when it's no longer found. This declarative approach avoids bugs, simplifies logic, and adapts better to changes like re-adding items, all without mutating the store.

AI

🧠 Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5 billion to settle author class action

🥽 Why language models hallucinate

➗ The maths you need to start understanding LLMs

More Tools & Stories

👴 Using Claude Code to modernize a 25-year-old kernel driver

🪖 Claude Code Framework Wars

🕺 The summer of vibe coding is over

Have a great week, see you the same time next week!

- Full Stack Focus team :)