Adding smart features to dumb apps
You no longer have to wait for updates from application developers—just make the features you want.
simeonGriggs.dev
Thoughts on Internet
Latest posts
It feels pointless because it's easy
Cheat codes ruin video games. Friction and value are inseparable.
Learning is about building personal context
On why learning slowly is still valuable in the age of shipping fast.
Suspense's problematic prop
Use suspense boundaries to wrap data—not layouts—to avoid its biggest problem.
Using Activity with Suspenseful data
Components hidden by Activity will maintain their state while also unmounting their effects and continue to preload suspenseful data—here's what makes that useful.
When prompting—ask, don’t tell
Getting the results you want from an LLM is more about collaborating than commanding.
Writing and performing a great talk
The best conference talks are written (without sounding scripted) and performed (while staying authentic).
Running for developers
If you've got the best intentions to make running part of your life, here's everything I absorbed to go from 0-100 (miles)
Put a box around it
Letting people know what you have done for them is so much more impressive than how you did it.
Conditional class names using DOM attributes as state
Style elements based on the state of their DOM attributes—instead of template logic—for more easily debuggable styles.
Tailwind CSS is basically a standard, start acting like it
The job of a framework is to render HTML so it makes sense to optionally bundle a way to style it with CSS
Mastery is underrated
In any sufficiently crowded market, there is always the opportunity to be the absolute best at your thing.
Thoughts on teaching developers
A glimpse into the context through which I create educational content and tutorials.
Query GraphQL in Remix in less than 60 seconds
You might not need a library to query GraphQL in Remix
Dynamic social sharing images from Remix with Satori
Creating individual meta images can be time-consuming work. Fortunately, creating on-brand and dynamic images for link previews has never been easier.
Add Vercel Analytics to a Remix Application
Vercel offers simple, privacy-focused analytics and web vitals data. These can be instantly set up on Next.js and other frameworks. It's a little extra work for your Remix app, but worth it.
Bridging the developer-author gap
In a content-editable website project, the people involved are two separate and yet equally important groups. The developers who build websites, and the authors that populate them with content. These are their stories.
In defence of over-engineering your blog
I've rebuilt this blog with the same design almost half a dozen times. Here's what I learned doing it again.
Prioritise content over components
Visually, components are unique, flexible units to compose complete layouts. For content, they can trap reusable data into single-use decorations.
Type-safe GROQ Queries for Sanity Data with Zod
We don’t have to sacrifice the awesomeness of GROQ for the safety of TypeScript. With Zod, we can have both.
Understanding reduce() as a combination of map() and filter()
It can be tough to identify use cases for something like reduce() until you’re already comfortable using it. Consider this a gentle entry point on your path to advanced use of the Swiss Army Knife of Array Methods.
How to ask for things with Loom
Almost all forms of communication are an "ask" of some kind. Even if you’re not asking for some "thing". At a minimum you're asking the other party for their time.
Using the Tailwind CSS Palette Generator and API
Creating hand-tooled 10-color Palettes can be tough. Get a head start by rapidly generating a full suite of Swatches from a single base value.
There's never been a better time to build websites
We're closing in on the end of 2021 and I'm as excited now about building websites as I've been in ~25 years.
Patterns for Next.js, Sanity.io, Catch-all Routes and Slugs
Hard coding document slugs in Sanity.io with validation rules can save you a lot of double-handling on both front and back end.
Recipe websites, data modelling and user experience
To a developer, recipes represent such a complex and delicious content model. So why do so many recipe websites leave a bad taste? Let's explore cooking up a more ideal version.
Backup Sanity to AWS S3
Headless CMS's are refreshingly "set and forget". But if the Risk Management Department needs to be satiated by having your own backup solution, it's easy to do.
The guide to useEffect() I wish I had
If you're relatively new to React, Hooks aren't new, they simply exist. And to understand the useEffect() hook is to almost entirely understand React Components.
Fun with Tailwind CSS Plugins
Publishing extensions is so much easier than copy/pasting project-to-project.
Responsive, Extendable Squircles with SVG
Rounded corners don't have to be so boring.
Gutenberg is the end of custom WordPress websites
For the first time ever, WordPress has strong opinions about how your website is designed – making it a bad choice as a generic content management system.
Sanity Schema Generator
Trying my hand at adding to the the Developer Experience of Sanity.
Create a Page Builder in Sanity for Gatsby
Setting up the most popular content editing pattern for the component-based nature of front end frameworks and modern website design.
Roll your own Gatsby live preview for Sanity
Gatsby Cloud-like live previewing for your Sanity website, but low cost with unlimited edits.