A Peek to React
Hi!
Usually, I listen to a song while writing something — but this time, I’m not listening to anything. Just chilling and letting my thoughts flow.
Lately, I’ve stopped listening to music on the train, while doing the dishes, cleaning the house, or even at the gym.
I’ve been spending more time with myself. Which, honestly, isn’t always easy to do.
If you feel like you haven’t really spent time with yourself for a while, maybe give it a try — it might change something inside you.
Product Idea
So, today I want to talk about a product idea that’s been in my mind for a long time.
I’ve been doing Lindy Hop for about 3.5 years and I’m also the competition coordinator for Jumpin’ at Istanbul — the biggest jazz dance festival in Türkiye.
In our competitions, we have dancers, judges, MCs, and scoring systems.
We currently use a website called rp-scoring.com, which is really useful.
It uses an algorithm called Relative Placement Scoring in the finals. (If you’re curious, here’s a nice explanation: What is Relative Placement?)
For every competition, we pay a small fee — and since we have 4–5 competitions during the festival, it adds up.
I’ve looked for alternatives, but this one still offers the most complete feature set.
Then I thought: “What if I create my own version — something that does what this site does, but even better?”
Only one small issue:
I don’t really have frontend skills. 😅
I’ve coded some Angular for industrial software at work, but never built a product myself — one where I handle both frontend and backend, then deploy it somewhere.
Still, this feels like a great learning opportunity.
I could use the product myself — and maybe recommend it to other festivals too!
Learning React
I’ve always been curious about React.
I already know the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, so I decided to finally dive in.
I found Kent C. Doods' Epic React course — it’s really well-structured and hands-on.
He gives you problems to solve, then walks through the solutions.
At first, I followed along and solved the challenges, but since the course is huge, I decided to pause and start building my project.
Now I’m mostly watching to understand how components, suspense, and other concepts work.
There are still sections about performance and advanced topics, but I’ll return to those later — once I get some real project experience.
I definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about learning React!
Getting Lost in the Frontend World
While exploring frontend technologies, I realized how easy it is to get lost.
There are so many tools — each doing similar things in different ways.
I discovered Remix… read the docs… and had no idea what it was doing 😅
Then I found Vite, which says it’s a “frontend tooling” — but what does that even mean?
Coming from the backend world, everything feels new and a bit confusing.
Sometimes I think I should’ve started learning frontend years ago — buuut better late than never, right?
Now I’m figuring out what I actually need to design, code, and deploy a product.
I plan to use Tailwind CSS for styling and maybe try Google Stitch for design.
It might not give me perfect results — maybe it’s my prompt or just my lack of design skills — but I’ll give it a shot.
I’m also thinking of creating a small YouTube series:
“From Idea to Production — Building a Product from Scratch.”
Something like that.
Dance Sectionn
For this newsletter's performance, I would like to share a great performance to you: The Jump Session Show at Camp Jitterbug
Music Sectionn
This is Ladaniva. A lovely Armenian song.
A friend of mine shared this song with me. Hooked since than.
If you have songs that you feel to share, I am always open to them ❤️
Series Sectionn
Today, I want to share an anime with you. This anime hits you in the first episode and never drop the ball.
If I had to share one emotion when I watch the anime, it is hopelessness.
You can think like just big giants hitting to each other but this is more that that.
Trust me.
That’s it for today, my friends.
Thanks for reading!
May the Force be with you ❤️
