Rich Harris on frameworks, the web, and the edge
Rich Harris·2023·Svelte Society NYC·40 minHarris revisits the SPA-vs-MPA argument through the lens of edge runtimes — and pushes back on the idea that SSR-everywhere is a victory for users.
Have Single-Page Apps Ruined the Web?
Rich Harris·2021·Jamstack ConfRich Harris pushes back on the SPA-vs-MPA dichotomy and sketches transitional apps — server-rendered, JS-enhanced, and progressively interactive.
Rethinking Reactivity
Rich Harris·2019·You Gotta Love FrontendRich Harris introduces Svelte 3 and argues that reactivity belongs in the compiler, not the runtime — the talk that crystallised the case for disappearing frameworks.
The Main Thread is Overworked & Underpaid
Surma·2019·Chrome Dev SummitSurma makes the case that the web is the only platform that still pretends threads do not exist — and shows how to move work off the main thread with workers.
Building a Custom React Renderer
Sophie Alpert·2019·React ConfSophie Alpert builds a tiny React renderer live on stage, demystifying reconciliation by writing it from scratch.
In The Loop
Jake Archibald·2018·JSConfAsiaJake Archibald walks through the browser event loop — tasks, microtasks, requestAnimationFrame, and the surprising ways the runtime interleaves your work with rendering.
Beyond React 16
Dan Abramov·2018·JSConfIcelandDan Abramov demos the React team's first sketches of async rendering and Suspense — the prototypes that would later become Concurrent Mode.