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Personal Optimization

Create a Personal Vision for 2026

I’ve found the act of creating a vision to be a useful way to dig deep and identify what I want my life to look like at work and at home.

Renee Liken Software Consultant & Delivery Lead at Atomic Object Ann Arbor. Obsessed with stories of TARDIS travel and energized by balancing business outcomes and technical realities with users' goals.

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Developer Tools • Feb 05

A Guide to Browser DevTools – The Network Monitor

Learn how to use the browser DevTools Network tab to inspect requests, debug APIs, and analyze page performance.

Developer Tools • Feb 04

Just Use Mise

Two of the biggest competitors in the version management space are asdf and mise (pronounced MEEZ). If you are stuck, just use mise.

TanStack • Feb 03

TanStack Router’s beforeLoad vs. loader — What’s the Difference?

TanStack Router's beforeLoad and loader allow for tight control over loading a route, but how should they be used?

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Developer Tools View more Developer Tools posts →

Pictured is author Michael Li with colleagues. Post title: A Guide to Browser DevTools - The Network Monitor

Developer Tools

A Guide to Browser DevTools – The Network Monitor

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Two developers gesture at a monitor. Post title: Just Use Mise

Developer Tools

Just Use Mise

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Shown is software developer and post author Rob Bell, at his Atomic Object Ann Arbor workstation. Post title: Introduction to Nushell: The Shell That Treats Everything as Data

Developer Tools

Introduction to Nushell: The Shell That Treats Everything as Data

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Author Susannah McCloskey with co-workers. Post title: Kysely: Type-Safe SQL Without ORM Overhead

Developer Tools

Kysely: Type-Safe SQL Without ORM Overhead

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UX/Design Tools View more UX/Design Tools posts →

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React / Redux View more React / Redux posts →

Pictured is author Jared Surato. Post title: Smarter Data Fetching with TanStack Query: Reusable Patterns and Optimistic UI

React / Redux

Smarter Data Fetching with TanStack Query: Reusable Patterns and Optimistic UI

Here are a few especially helpful patterns for real-world projects, including reusing query configuration across components.

Use React Hook Form with Zod Validation: Part One

React / Redux

Use React Hook Form with Zod Validation: Part One

React Hook Form is a library that smoothly handles forms in React. Let's look at examples of how to use React Hook Form with Zod validation.

Improve Asynchronous State UX in React with useOptimistic

React / Redux

Improve Asynchronous State UX in React with useOptimistic

React 19’s useOptimistic hook helps reduces annoyances by providing a built-in hook for Optimistic Updates.

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Web Apps View more Web Apps posts →

Web Apps

Build a 3D Product Configurator with Babylon.js

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How to Build and Publish Browser Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

Web Apps

How to Build and Publish Browser Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari

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Embedding Payload CMS 3.0 Admin UI in Your Next.js App

Web Apps

Embed Payload CMS 3.0 Admin UI in Your Next.js App

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About a year ago, I used Remix on a short prototype app to that displayed a series of reports and I loved it. For those who don’t know. Remix is a framework for building websites. It uses React JS as a base and adds some specialized compiling. The app was a great use case for Remix for a few reasons. First, the pre-built stacks got the app deployed quickly. The main parts of Remix that shined were its prefetching, directory-based routing, and its loader functions. The prefetching helped the reports load faster because some data would be retrieved before the user navigated. The directory-based routing made it easy to setup the structure of the app. Last, Remix’s loader functions were able to retrieve small amounts of data each as it was needed. I am now using Remix on a second website that has a different structure than the prototype and we aren’t able to use the same features to the same degree. This time around, I am finding myself using fewer of the features mentioned previously. We aren’t using perfecting because we have a single page with a lot of complexity. We have fewer loader functions retrieving lots of information at once which makes them perform worse. The main difference that I found between the two projects is that the prototype was a multipage app and the second has been turning into a single page app (SPA). Based on Remix's documentation and my experience the best use cases for Remix are ones that can be modeled as multiple pages. Challenges for single page apps For this post, when I refer to a single page app I am referring to an app that tries to pack a variety of behaviors onto a single route. An example would be Google Calendar. Pictured below: In order to render this page, we need to load a few different things. We need to load all the events for this month, all the calendars for the user, and the details for the apps along the lefthand side. Then to use the app, we need to track which event is selected. When the user drags an event, we need to keep track of the calendar it is on. Then when it is placed, an alert is displayed if there are any conflicts. This state and behavior may need to be done in one component, which means one loader function. We may also want to perform component tests which are only partially supported in Remix, based on this git conversation. Make it optimal Instead, let’s talk about structuring an app to leverage Remix’s strengths. I am assuming we want to make use of Remix’s speedy loading while getting around some of its component testing limitations.The files that are used for routing should each be responsible for retrieving, displaying and mutating a limited set of information. As an example of a UI structure that could work well in Remix let’s look at Slack. Slack's UI can be visually broken down into three sections. The workspaces are on the far left. Then the channels within the selected workspace are listed, and lastly, we have the current chat for the selected workspace. A Remix app with this UI could have a URL like: slack/workspace2/proj-new-website. The root of the app would get the list of all workspaces, then /workspace2 would load the details for the selected workspace. Lastly, the chat window for /proj-new-website would load the chats and display them. This app can be modeled as a multipage app because the responsibilities are spread at different levels of the page instead of being concentrated in one component, like with the Google Calendar example. This would be a Slack-like app, and a better use case for Remix than a calendar app. Use the right tool for the job Remix is a powerful tool for web development. It can produce polished prototypes quickly and can build performant production apps. However, an app in Remix needs to keep Remix's design principles in mind. This means splitting the app's pages into pieces that can be loaded and rendered separately and keeping components as simple as possible in order to limit component testing on the frontend. Designing an app this way will enable the app to leverage the performance benefits promised by Remix.

Web Apps

Remix is Incredible — If It Fits Your Use Case

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Development Practices View more Development Practices posts →

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DevOps & System Admin View more DevOps & System Admin posts →

Pictured is author Casey Falkowski with co-workers. Post title: Bringing Confidence to Complex Data Migrations with Snapshot Testing

DevOps & System Admin.

SST Makes Infrastructure Easy — Too Easy?

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Hot Reloading Kubernetes with Skaffold

DevOps & System Admin.

How to Hot Reload Kubernetes with Skaffold

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Docker Compose Dependency Management Isn't a Silver Bullet

DevOps & System Admin.

Docker Compose Dependency Management Isn’t a Silver Bullet

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Working with Docker Containers Made Easy with the dexec Bash Script

DevOps & System Admin.

Working with Docker Containers Made Easy with the dexec Bash Script

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Extracurricular Activities View more Extracurricular Activities posts →

A table from an post called: From Simple Circuits to Powerful Systems

Extracurricular Activities

From Simple Circuits to Powerful Systems

Explore the world of electron devices and circuits. Discover how simple electronics can be and break down learning barriers.

Author Dre Solorzano with colleagues. Post title: I Built a Pokémon Trainer AI With LangChain

Extracurricular Activities

I Built a Pokémon Trainer AI With LangChain

Pokémon just isn’t that hard anymore. So I started wondering: What if I could build my own LLM-powered AI Pokémon trainer?

Part of the Atomic Grand Rapids team sit around a table together. Post title: Automatically Log In to an Ubuntu Head

Extracurricular Activities

Automatically Log In to an Ubuntu Head

Software on one of my Ubuntu virtual machines requires a user to be logged into the head. Here's a small systemd unit to automatically login.

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.NET / WPF View more .NET / WPF posts →

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Personal Optimization View more Personal Optimization posts →

Hand-drawn picture showing Renee's goals back in 2014

Personal Optimization

Create a Personal Vision for 2026

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Building My Support Team Early & Other Things I’m Doing Differently in My Second Pregnancy

Personal Optimization

Building My Support Team Early & Other Things I’m Doing Differently in My Second Pregnancy

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Passengers on a bus. Post title: 100 Ways to Reclaim Your Commute

Personal Optimization

100 Ways to Reclaim Your Commute

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The author is pictured writing on a whiteboard. Article title: Why DurableTaskClient is Critical for Long-Running Azure Functions

Personal Optimization

Use the Elimination Method for Identifying Stressors

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TypeScript View More TypeScript posts →

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React Native View more React Native posts →

Pictured is author Jared Surato with colleagues. Post title: Here's What I’ve Learned After a Year of Full Time React Native Development

React Native

Here’s What I’ve Learned After a Year of Full-Time React Native Development

A year of full-time React Native development has taught me that success comes from consistent habits. Here are the ones that matter most.

Pictured are hands on a keyboard. Post title: How to Create a Chart with a Secondary Y Axis in React Native with Victory Native XL

React Native

Create a Chart with a Secondary Y Axis in React Native with Victory Native XL

The configurability of Victory Native XL charts can be a huge plus, especially when developing in React Native.

An iOS share sheet showing that a file named "my-database" that's 9.6 MB is being shared, and the file type is "SQLite Database".

React Native

How to AirDrop a SQLite Database from Your React Native App

My development team came up with a solution that takes advantage of the iOS and Android share sheet to let us export our SQLite database.

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Growing as Makers View more Growing as Makers posts →

Man and woman watching television

Growing as Makers

How Reality TV Makes Me a Better Designer

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The ratchet mechanism that makes the TV tuner on the NES TV click. Illustrating a post titled: Building with LEGOs and Building Software for the Future

Growing as Makers

Building with LEGOs and Building Software for the Future

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Shown are two co-workers looking at a whiteboard together. Post title: What I Learned from a Quarter of Intentional Growth

Growing as Makers

What I Learned from a Quarter of Intentional Growth

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Close-up of a backlit computer keyboard. Post title: Tickets to Commits: What IT Work Taught Me About Writing Code

Growing as Makers

Tickets to Commits: What IT Work Taught Me About Writing Code

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Atomic Thinking View more Atomic Thinking posts →

Pictured is author Michael Li with colleagues. Post title: A Guide to Browser DevTools - The Network Monitor

Developer Tools

A Guide to Browser DevTools – The Network Monitor

Learn how to use the browser DevTools Network tab to inspect requests, debug APIs, and analyze page performance.

Two developers gesture at a monitor. Post title: Just Use Mise

Developer Tools

Just Use Mise

Two of the biggest competitors in the version management space are asdf and mise (pronounced MEEZ). If you are stuck, just use mise.

Author Casey Falkowski looks at a monitor with co-workers. Post title: TanStack Router's beforeLoad vs. loader — What's the Difference?

TanStack

TanStack Router’s beforeLoad vs. loader — What’s the Difference?

TanStack Router's beforeLoad and loader allow for tight control over loading a route, but how should they be used?

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