Lessons in optimizing performance at Vixlet
Over the past year or so, the web team here at Vixlet has embarked on an exciting journey of moving our entire web application to a React + Redux architecture. It has been a growing opportunity for our entire team and throughout this process, we have some challenges along the way.
Since our web-app can have very large feed views consisting of hundreds if not thousands of media/text/video/link items, we spent considerable time looking for ways to get the most out of React’s performance. Here we will share some of the lessons we have learned along the way.
Disclaimer: The practices and methods described below have been found applicable to the performance needs of our specific application. However, as with all development advice, it’s important to take the needs of your application and team into account. React is pretty fast out of the box, so you may not need as finely-tuned performance as our use case. Nevertheless, we hope you find this post informative. …
On Uncertainty and Doubt
I enjoyed a conversation last night with a good friend. As is typical with this friend, the conversation ranged from the deeply philosophical to the randomly absurd. One thing she said last night stuck with me, though. It really made me think. She said basically (I’m paraphrasing here, I lack the proper eloquence needed to express the idea as she did): “I will always have doubts. …
On doing more with our time and realizing I’m not a hero.
People tend to spend their lunch breaks in different ways. Some people will nearly always go out with co-workers, enjoying the stories of the day, conversing about the latest news or gossip. I’m not one of those people. Other’s will go for a walk to soak up a little sunlight, clear their mind after a hectic morning, and get a little exercise. I am not one of those people either. No, I’m the kind of person who typically spends my lunch break pretty much the same way I spend the rest of my time, hunched over in front of my MacBook either working through my lunch break or mindlessly surfing the net until I’m in a zoned-out cyber-haze that’s difficult to shake off. I’ve come to realize that neither of those two options is particularly good for me. And though the best thing for me to do would probably involve me getting off my computer and going for a walk, realistically that probably won’t happen. …
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