Do I have to learn Redux? | Hacker News Reader

Do I have to learn Redux?

exploringreact.com

React’s big selling point is state management, but managing state is ridiculously trivial.

Articles like these strike me as an expert beginner problem. It requires experience and expertise to evaluate the proper need and business requirements for dependent libraries like Redux. All the while the developer is busy better answering more refined solutions to common problems without critically examining the problem in the first place. In other words the problem the developer is solving is how to do Redux better so that they can do React better which is extremely artificial considering the actual problem is just state management. Considering the time investment involved it seems more of a resume padding game than a real world technology solution.

Hi Austin, thanks for the feedback, I’ve been thinking about this article a bit since I wrote it and wondering if I “pitched” it right.

The advice isn’t aiming to be righteous but rather pragmatic - you sometimes have to learn something because other people will use it or for a job interview question.

React’s state management with hooks and passing handlers via props can go a long way though!

I've seen many developer hours go into meetings to decide if we should use Redux, and individual developers sent off on investigatory missions to see if they could shoehorn an existing React app's state into Redux. It feels like everyone thinks they "should" be using Redux, but in practice it takes time to do the refactor, and time isn't free.

FWIW, I'm a Redux maintainer, and our docs explicitly offer some rules of thumb for when it might make sense to use Redux:

https://redux.js.org/faq/general#when-should-i-use-redux

https://redux.js.org/tutorials/essentials/part-1-overview-co...

https://redux.js.org/tutorials/essentials/part-2-app-structu...

Thanks.

I am asking a slightly different question, and I probably didn't make it clear enough, but I am asking if you should LEARN Redux. Not whether to use it on project X. Often in this fast moving world, it is worth learning some concepts so that you know when they would be useful, and because of job interviews and such like.

I'll update the article when I get a chance to include acemarke's advice on when to USE Redux though.

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