Thoughts on the Modern Web Development Stack

The web development landscape in 2026 looks remarkably different from just a few years ago. Server components are mainstream, edge computing is the default, and the line between "static" and "dynamic" has blurred beyond recognition.

The Rise of Server-First

React Server Components, initially met with skepticism, have become the standard way to build React applications. The mental model shift from "everything runs in the browser" to "server by default, client when needed" has fundamentally changed how we think about data fetching and rendering.

Frameworks like Next.js and Remix made this transition smooth. The developer experience of writing a component that fetches data directly — no useEffect, no loading states, no waterfall requests — feels like the way things should have always worked.

TypeScript Won

This is no longer a debate. TypeScript adoption has reached a point where writing plain JavaScript in a production application feels irresponsible. The tooling has matured, the type inference is excellent, and the safety net it provides catches entire categories of bugs before they reach production.

The Tooling Renaissance

Build tools have gotten incredibly fast. Between Turbopack, Vite, and esbuild, the days of waiting 30+ seconds for a dev server to start are behind us. Hot module replacement is nearly instant, and the feedback loop between writing code and seeing results has never been tighter.

What I'm Excited About

Looking ahead, I'm particularly excited about:

• —AI-assisted development becoming more nuanced and context-aware
• —WebAssembly enabling entirely new categories of web applications
• —Edge computing making global performance accessible to everyone
• —Web Components finally reaching a level of maturity that makes them practical

The web platform continues to be the most accessible, most powerful application platform we have. Building for it has never been more enjoyable.