Revisiting Remix
I’m certain there are a lot of you out there who are seeing the excitement around Remix and thinking: “Ugh, I’m not ready for something new … stuff changes too fast!” Learning how to solve the same problems but with a different API is exhausting. The worst part is feeling like all the deep knowledge I have with my current tools is now obsolete, and I’m a beginner all over again. That is exhausting.
I voiced just this sentiment late last year, when I first learned about Remix. One of my frustrations with the current JavaScript-dominated frontend landscape is just how disposable our tooling, and by extension, or knowledge, is. I’ve gained a deep understanding of Next.js over the last couple years. Some of that is transferable, like learning how server-side rendering and hydration work, but mostly I’ve just memorized proprietary APIs. And when we move on to the next framework? That’ll all be left behind.
But Remix sounds a bit different:
When you work in Remix, you’re mostly working with standard web APIs. […] This knowledge will not just help you build great user experiences in Remix, but it will help you outside of Remix today and in the future.
I love this! Learn Remix and you’ll learn the web platform.
Ryan frames the benefits in terms of personal knowledge. But your future self will thank you in more ways than one. Tools that align themselves with web standards have a lower “cost of opinion”, which means in turn that the cost of shedding them, which you will invariably do, is lower. More on that in a future note.