Josh Gachnang @DEFCON
@joshgachnang.bsky.social
CTO Flourish Health. React/React Native/TS/Node | Prev: SonarMD, Triggr Health, Rackspace, OpenStack | Making the world better w/ code and kindness.
If you ever need to present at work or give a talk, this was a fabulous talk on giving a talk. I might submit a few presentations for 2026! It’s been nearly 10 years since my last talk, wow. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc...
How to Speak
YouTube video by MIT OpenCourseWare
m.youtube.com
September 16, 2025 at 1:53 PM
If you ever need to present at work or give a talk, this was a fabulous talk on giving a talk. I might submit a few presentations for 2026! It’s been nearly 10 years since my last talk, wow. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc...
Reposted by Josh Gachnang @DEFCON
I'm PhD in graphic design and Cracker Barrel's REAL problem is they didn't go *far enough*
August 24, 2025 at 1:44 PM
I'm PhD in graphic design and Cracker Barrel's REAL problem is they didn't go *far enough*
My flight is delayed because the plane is too hot…it’s only 87 in Seattle.
August 25, 2025 at 12:43 AM
My flight is delayed because the plane is too hot…it’s only 87 in Seattle.
Anyone have good ideas for individual engineer KPIs? Goal is easy to track and the engineer has as much agency as possible. So far my only ideas are numbers of PR review and/or lag between review request and review.
August 25, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Anyone have good ideas for individual engineer KPIs? Goal is easy to track and the engineer has as much agency as possible. So far my only ideas are numbers of PR review and/or lag between review request and review.
Literally every time I cook I'm annoyed by all the different recipe apps and sites. Put the measurements in the instructions (but dynamically, so I can scale) and always give me grams with dry ingredients. e.g. "Add 1 cup (120g) flour to the mixture". Time to spin AvoToast back up.
July 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Literally every time I cook I'm annoyed by all the different recipe apps and sites. Put the measurements in the instructions (but dynamically, so I can scale) and always give me grams with dry ingredients. e.g. "Add 1 cup (120g) flour to the mixture". Time to spin AvoToast back up.
Always blows my mind when I try to work from a coffee shop like Starbucks and get like 2Mbps. Left and tried a Caribou in a grocery story in rural WI and I get 300Mbps.
July 21, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Always blows my mind when I try to work from a coffee shop like Starbucks and get like 2Mbps. Left and tried a Caribou in a grocery story in rural WI and I get 300Mbps.
Always a good sign when the pilot tries turning the plane on and off again.
July 9, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Always a good sign when the pilot tries turning the plane on and off again.
Struggled most of yesterday with a bug. Finally threw the whole feature description and the 1800 lines I wrote into Gemini. 2 minutes later it pointed out I was a dumbass (“made a logical error”) and fixed it. Worked first try. Damn robots taking our jobs 😂
May 22, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Struggled most of yesterday with a bug. Finally threw the whole feature description and the 1800 lines I wrote into Gemini. 2 minutes later it pointed out I was a dumbass (“made a logical error”) and fixed it. Worked first try. Damn robots taking our jobs 😂
Reposted by Josh Gachnang @DEFCON
I'm surprised react-native-mmkv isn't as popular - honestly, there's no reason to use AsyncStorage anymore
results.stateofreactnative.com/en-US/state-...
results.stateofreactnative.com/en-US/state-...
February 27, 2025 at 4:05 PM
I'm surprised react-native-mmkv isn't as popular - honestly, there's no reason to use AsyncStorage anymore
results.stateofreactnative.com/en-US/state-...
results.stateofreactnative.com/en-US/state-...
Using Cursor to help write Cursor rules. Inception.
February 27, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Using Cursor to help write Cursor rules. Inception.
Reposted by Josh Gachnang @DEFCON
Legend List 1.0 beta is ready!
It started as a performance experiment, but it ended up solving a lot of the major issues with lists in React Native. 🎉
✨ Better perf than FlashList
✨ maintainContentVisiblePosition
✨ Bidirectional infinite lists
✨ Chat UI without inverting
It started as a performance experiment, but it ended up solving a lot of the major issues with lists in React Native. 🎉
✨ Better perf than FlashList
✨ maintainContentVisiblePosition
✨ Bidirectional infinite lists
✨ Chat UI without inverting
January 20, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Legend List 1.0 beta is ready!
It started as a performance experiment, but it ended up solving a lot of the major issues with lists in React Native. 🎉
✨ Better perf than FlashList
✨ maintainContentVisiblePosition
✨ Bidirectional infinite lists
✨ Chat UI without inverting
It started as a performance experiment, but it ended up solving a lot of the major issues with lists in React Native. 🎉
✨ Better perf than FlashList
✨ maintainContentVisiblePosition
✨ Bidirectional infinite lists
✨ Chat UI without inverting
Reposted by Josh Gachnang @DEFCON
"Becoming a professional software developer is accumulating a back-catalogue of regrets and mistakes. You learn nothing from success. It is not that you know what good code looks like, but the scars of bad code are fresh in your mind." - @tef.bsky.social
January 16, 2025 at 2:14 PM
"Becoming a professional software developer is accumulating a back-catalogue of regrets and mistakes. You learn nothing from success. It is not that you know what good code looks like, but the scars of bad code are fresh in your mind." - @tef.bsky.social
Implemented a whole moderately complex feature, about 300 lines with tests. I wrote maybe 20 of those lines. Fed Windsurf the PRD and a brief implementation plan, nudged it a couple times, and it worked. Amazing how far these tools have come.
January 12, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Implemented a whole moderately complex feature, about 300 lines with tests. I wrote maybe 20 of those lines. Fed Windsurf the PRD and a brief implementation plan, nudged it a couple times, and it worked. Amazing how far these tools have come.
Does anyone have experience with Twilio campaign suspensions? Had one of our campaigns suspended (I suspect they flagged something as spam) and haven't had any luck getting any answers, even after paying for Twilio support.
January 11, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Does anyone have experience with Twilio campaign suspensions? Had one of our campaigns suspended (I suspect they flagged something as spam) and haven't had any luck getting any answers, even after paying for Twilio support.
I was just thinking “well, I’m at a good stopping point, it’s 430 on a Friday, I’m taking off early!” Forgot I started at 7…
January 3, 2025 at 10:28 PM
I was just thinking “well, I’m at a good stopping point, it’s 430 on a Friday, I’m taking off early!” Forgot I started at 7…
Love my 3D printer. 30 mins after I broke my treadmill clip, I had a new one.
January 2, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Love my 3D printer. 30 mins after I broke my treadmill clip, I had a new one.
Using Windsurf and it is _amazing_. I love Cursor, but having it actually able to run tests, read the results, and come up with solutions on its own is incredible. I might need to spend the first couple of weeks updating some of our infra to support it better (faster tests, UI tests, etc)
December 30, 2024 at 4:54 PM
Using Windsurf and it is _amazing_. I love Cursor, but having it actually able to run tests, read the results, and come up with solutions on its own is incredible. I might need to spend the first couple of weeks updating some of our infra to support it better (faster tests, UI tests, etc)
There's a terrible Meta Glasses ad I keep getting on podcasts that starts out with the person asking "how do I make a latte"? If you're capable of making a latte at home, you'd know it because you bought an espresso machine. If not, Meta AI ain't gonna help, other than "help" you order one.
December 30, 2024 at 3:40 PM
There's a terrible Meta Glasses ad I keep getting on podcasts that starts out with the person asking "how do I make a latte"? If you're capable of making a latte at home, you'd know it because you bought an espresso machine. If not, Meta AI ain't gonna help, other than "help" you order one.
Two days, two coworking day passes that failed. Probably should have bit the bullet and went into Chicago proper rather than staying in the far burbs (where family is). On the high side, I’m getting tons of Starbucks stars ⭐️
December 27, 2024 at 3:34 PM
Two days, two coworking day passes that failed. Probably should have bit the bullet and went into Chicago proper rather than staying in the far burbs (where family is). On the high side, I’m getting tons of Starbucks stars ⭐️
Visiting family for the holidays. 73 is too high for the thermostat during the day IMO, but I’ll survive. 73 during the night? I’m dying.
December 27, 2024 at 1:42 PM
Visiting family for the holidays. 73 is too high for the thermostat during the day IMO, but I’ll survive. 73 during the night? I’m dying.
It was about my 6th try and heavvvvy help from Claude, but finally added the ability to pin columns to our React Native Table component. It is literally the most requested feature by our staff. I wish ScrollView or FlatList would support it natively.
December 27, 2024 at 12:56 PM
It was about my 6th try and heavvvvy help from Claude, but finally added the ability to pin columns to our React Native Table component. It is literally the most requested feature by our staff. I wish ScrollView or FlatList would support it natively.
Reposted by Josh Gachnang @DEFCON
Just read the response from Costco to shareholders requesting it back down from DEI. It was glorious. It begins "Our Board has considered this proposal and believes … an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary." and gets better. A happy investor #diversityandinclusion
December 25, 2024 at 2:31 PM
Just read the response from Costco to shareholders requesting it back down from DEI. It was glorious. It begins "Our Board has considered this proposal and believes … an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary." and gets better. A happy investor #diversityandinclusion
Great thread on why a ton of AI agents won’t suddenly get rid of devs. Plus have you ever code reviewed and tested for a whole team? It’s a *ton* of work. AI will help with that but only so much (until AGI)
I see so much FUD about the future of sw engineering, mostly from non-devs. Along the lines of “soon anyone can spin off AI agents in bulk that act as hundreds of devs.”
A false premise. Just open your airline app that is built by ~hundreds of devs over 10+ years
A false premise. Just open your airline app that is built by ~hundreds of devs over 10+ years
December 21, 2024 at 3:26 PM
Great thread on why a ton of AI agents won’t suddenly get rid of devs. Plus have you ever code reviewed and tested for a whole team? It’s a *ton* of work. AI will help with that but only so much (until AGI)
