February 21, 2026
Wands down, gloves off
I Don't Like Magic
Coder swears off tech “magic” as React and AI fans fire back
TLDR: A web developer blasted “magic” tools, refusing React and AI‑generated code in favor of simple, hand‑built sites. Comments erupted: purists cheered craft and control, while others argued all code is abstraction and defended React, with a side debate on AI quick wins versus long‑term maintainability.
A veteran web builder just dropped a spicy essay: he hates tech “magic”—the glossy promise that tools “just work.” He says frameworks like React (a popular tool for building websites) add bloat and steal control, preferring raw HTML/CSS/JavaScript and hand‑crafted sites. He even skipped client projects that demanded React. And AI code generators? He’s spooked by devs who YOLO code to production. The community lit up like a fireworks display.
One side cheered, quoting “What I cannot build, I do not understand,” and worrying about cargo‑cult copy‑paste culture. Another side went full courtroom drama: if you dislike abstraction, go write in assembly (the lowest level of code) because everything on computers is layers on layers—why single out React? React defenders insisted the tool is simple; the real bloat comes from add‑ons and a culture of complexity. The AI thread brought the metaphors: coding is knitting, AI is an automated loom—fast, but maybe fragile—versus a hand‑made sweater that lasts ten winters. Commenters joked about “daily trust falls” with npm (a tool that installs other people’s code), “vanilla JS monks vs React stans,” and asked whether convenience, deadlines, and tutorials are the real magic drawing people in. For context, the author has written about seamless vs seamful design and linked debates on abstractions from Anil Dash and Lea Verou.
Key Points
- •The author rejects “magic” in technology—opaque abstractions marketed as effortless—due to reduced agency and control.
- •He minimizes dependencies, using only two JavaScript libraries on The Session and avoids npm for client-side due to cascading trust chains.
- •He distinguishes libraries (called by his code) from frameworks (which call his code) and avoids frameworks like React for performance and abstraction reasons.
- •He has stepped back from client front-end projects where React is mandated, focusing instead on his own sites and occasional Clearleft event sites.
- •He warns about unvetted AI-generated code from large language models reaching production and urges developers to review outputs before use.