Tech & Work

Goal: A quick-reference checklist of dos and don’ts when you’re new to a team or project – technical, cultural, and strategic. Bookmark this for future reference Mindset Listen and absorb as much as you can from discussions, meetings and conversations. Ask a lot of questions from different people in your team such as engineers, PMs, QA, designers. Do not limit yourself to just your domain. Clear assumptions: It’s good to clarify your assumptions even if they are obvious. Focus on “why X is like that” instead of “why we are not doing Y instead of X”. Understanding the context matters more than proposing alternatives early on. Start small: Ship a tiny fix or feature to learn the end to end flow. Take notes where required to have a reference for next time. Ramp up smartly Learn ✅ How to build, run, test and debug the project locally. ✅ Where docs live (internal wikis, Notion, READMEs, Slack pins) ✅ What is the API setup, data flow, and connection between frontend and backend ✅ Project structure, conventions, auth, permissions, and environment variables Release process Understand the release process — what happens after you push code? How can you verify your changes? Is there a post-deployment checklist or test plan you need to follow? This helps you build confidence in the full development lifecycle. Get familiar with GitHub workflow (branches, PRs, reviews) Jira / PM tool workflow (tickets, estimations, priorities) Know the Business + Team Culture Understanding the “why” behind decisions and the way your team works helps you navigate smarter and contribute meaningfully. This helps you get the bigger picture. What business value does the tech serve? Which business goals are driving the current direction? Why not switching tech is often a conscious, valid choice Understand legacy: it exists for a reason, even if it looks messy Learn the team’s communication norms, review style, meeting rituals Expectations Over Time Have realistic expectations for yourself based on the project’s size and complexity. A project is a marathon, not a sprint. Ramp-up: 3–6 months to be confident, especially in large/legacy projects Efficiency: 1–2 years to become fast and intuitive Proficiency: 3–5 years to develop deep technical and domain depth Final Tips Take your time learning — there’s no rush to “prove yourself.” Ship something small, build confidence. Have fun and bring your unique value to the team.

I recently created a starter template and wanted to share the process behind it. If you’re not interested in the process, here’s the link: paras594/react-starter-template For those who are interested, read ahead. The Problem I like building projects for fun and experimentation, but I always had one main problem: project setup. I’ve become well-versed in it and have no fear of getting started, but it’s inefficient and damn slow. It slows me down that I have to spend a chunk of my time on setup instead of actually building the project. Sometimes I used Next.js for its defaults with routing, data fetching, and optimizations out of the box. Other times I went with custom setups and Vite. In the past I was dabbling with webpack and custom configurations, but with time it all changed and I never finalized one single approach. Even though I always thought of building templates I could reuse, I either didn’t get the time or was too focused on the project that I let the templating part slip—until now. The Solution I found degit out of nowhere. I knew about it but never gave enough thought to it. But this time I understood my goal: have a template setup and add degit to the whole thing. I quickly sat down, used the Vite + React default template, and invested time in a few key decisions on what to include. My Goals with the Template Flexible and extensible – Should adapt to different project needs Reliable folder structure – Something you get familiar with over time Formatting and linting support – Without requiring tons of configuration Styling and components – Easy to get started with What Made the Cut Vite + React – Fast builds and development server TanStack Router – File-based routing with better type safety TanStack Query – Data fetching & server state management Tailwind + DaisyUI – Utility-first styling with ready-to-use components Biome – Linting and formatting TypeScript – Type safety PWA support – Progressive web app features The goal was simple: clone the repo and start building features on day one. Why These Choices? Vite is fast, TanStack Router provides a cleaner approach to handling routing than React Router, TanStack Query takes care of all the boilerplate that comes with data fetching, Tailwind + DaisyUI gives great default components without writing tons of classes, Biome avoids the hassle of keeping ESLint and Prettier updated while eliminating config bloat. How It Evolves I actually use this template for my own projects, which means it stays current with my real-world needs. Dependabot keeps the dependencies updated, and I add or remove things as I encounter them in actual development. I’m also considering branches for different use cases – maybe a minimal version, or branches with specific additions like authentication or database integration. The idea is to have options without bloating the main template. The template is on GitHub: paras594/react-starter-template Follow the steps in README and you are good to go. Final Thoughts This template isn’t revolutionary – it’s just a collection of tools that work well together and let you focus on building features instead of configuration. Feel free to use it if it matches what you usually reach for, or ignore it if your stack is different.