Joshua Sierles: Web Development Seems to Improve on a Daily Basis — Especially in the React Ecosystem ReactiveConf Follow Oct 1, 2015 · 3 min read

Reactive Conference is bringing you an interview with one of our speakers Joshua Sierles.

What’s your personal elevator pitch?

I have no pitch for myself, but can say that working in open source has always been about two things: meeting visionaries, builders and hackers who seem to have their finger on the pulse of the future, and participating in life-long learning. I’ve tried always to work half in technical capacity and the half trying to draw out creativity from others. And I got into React Native especially because I love the energy around early adoption!

How did you end up being a web developer?

I’ve never considered myself a web developer. In fact I’ve worn all number of hats over the years: security tester, sysadmin, and even internet cafe attendant! I’ve had a passion for building out server infrastructure from the ‘rack your own server’ days, but that’s given way lately to creating front-end visible products and tools. I’ve always been fascinated by technology, but didn’t believe in the web until moving to southern Spain from the US in 2001, after a year of world travel. Web development was the easiest way to make a living in a place which was, at the time, behind in tech and sorely in need of tech workers. Through this experience I learned to appreciate the simple communicative power of the web and kept my focus on it since, through Ruby on Rails and now React.

What is the most important project you’re currently working on?

Apart from ongoing work on the React Native Playground, I’m working on a React Native app testing and feedback tool built around the Playground concepts. Personally, the journey has been revolutionary in many ways: learning tons of new tech, making new friends along the way and spicing up my daily work routine. Before React Native’s release, I was struggling learning iOS development in Rubymotion and XCode. Seeing React Native’s preview, I got super excited and jumped right in when it came out. After one of Facebook’s core team mentioned the possibility of loading a React Native app inside another, I took on the challenge of building and growing this concept with a great team of adventurers who jumped in to help out.

Is there any issue in web development world that should be fixed asap?

I’ll push back on this question and say NO in general to “ASAP”. In our bad-news saturated culture, it’s easy to focus on the weaknesses rather than strengths of our environment. Just remember what it was like to develop ANYTHING 10 years ago! Web (and mobile) development seems to improve on a daily basis — especially in the React ecosystem. What seems like a big issue now will change fast in little time!

What will you speak about at Reactive 2015?

The React Native Playground itself, the tech decisions required to make it work, plans for the future, and how others can benefit from working on projects that help developers.

What do you expect from the conference?