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Pete Hunt: React: Rethinking best practices -- JSConf EU

JSConf · talk · Watch on YouTube

Web developmentSoftware architecture & design

What it is

Pete Hunt of Facebook and Instagram introduces React at JSConf EU 2013 and explains its design principles. He argues that separating templates from logic only separates technologies, not concerns, and makes the case for components.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN calls it the famous talk for understanding why React rejected separation of concerns by technology and for newcomers puzzled by JSX.

  • 9 people recommended it
  • 9 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “gives a great overview of the reasoning behind react”

    Great overview of the reasoning behind React.

    EdwardMSmith, 2018-02 · Strong recommendation · in “How and why we moved to Vue.js”

  2. “I was totally floored; they'd solved everything I had been trying to do with UI as code and much more”

    Talk that solved problems the commenter struggled with.

    insin, 2020-05 · Strong recommendation · in “What if we'd had better HTML-in-JS syntax all along?”

  3. “Here a pretty good video of React's founder pointing on some weakness of Angular”

    React founder points to weaknesses of Angular.

    versusdotcom, 2014-03 · Recommendation · in “Angular 2.0”

  4. “There's a great React video on this concept, as well as some other good stuff!”

    Great React video on organizing by concept rather than technology.

    munro, 2014-10 · Recommendation · in “Mistakes AngularJS Developers Make”

  5. “Check out or this JSConf talk”

    paulshen, 2014-12 · Recommendation · in “Build with React – ReactJS articles and tutorials”

  6. “See Pete Hunt's famous talk”

    Famous talk distinguishing concerns from technologies.

    ChrisGaudreau, 2015-05 · Recommendation · in “How I learned to stop worrying and love React”

  7. “Conceptual intro to React's building views approach.”

    firasd, 2016-05 · Recommendation · in “Thinking in React”

  8. “this talk by Pete Hunt is a good start”

    Good starting point for newcomers puzzled by JSX.

    vmasto, 2017-04 · Recommendation · in “An experienced Javascript developer’s account of learning React”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: react, separation of concerns, jsx, components, pete hunt, frontend

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