Kent reacts to Dax's question on X — why no framework dethroned React — and connects it to Jobs Theory, network effects, and why framework choice matters less when agents write the code.
Chapters
- 00:00 — Why did nobody dethrone React?
- 00:24 — Dax's question on X
- 00:49 — React is the last UI library (2020)
- 02:47 — Functional first, then social and emotional
- 03:36 — What made React functionally better
- 06:43 — Network effects and "nobody got fired for choosing React"
- 07:38 — Why framework choice matters less with agents
- 09:27 — Jobs Theory: apply this to everything you ship
- 11:14 — Wrap-up
Better with Kent — durable skills for people who ship software.
Every few years the internet declares the framework wars over — usually with React as the loser. Svelte was going to win. Then Solid. Vue had its moment. Angular never left. And somehow, after a decade of "React is dead" takes, React is still the default for an absurd amount of real product work.
Kent's take: React won functionally first (state sync, composition, drop-in UI focus), then socially and emotionally once it hit critical mass. Challengers can still be "better" on paper — but once agents can use any capable stack, the throne fight stops mattering the way it used to.
Links
](/media/w_955,h_1273,fit_cover,bg_e6e9ee/unsplash/photo-1534870439272-475575042b61 "How to use React Context effectively")
](/media/w_955,h_1273,fit_cover,bg_e6e9ee/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/optimize-react-re-renders/banner "One simple trick to optimize React re-renders")