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Snack Pack: What actually makes someone a real developer?

Published about 1 month ago • 3 min read

A Tasty Treats NEWSLETTER for Web Developers

Issue #60:

Aaand we’re back. Kicking off 2026 with Issue #60 of the Snack Pack. Hope you had a great break, survived the holidays, and set some reasonably realistic New Year’s resolution

  • A brand-new framework-agnostic AI toolkit from TanStack just dropped — and the JS community is all in.
  • Can CSS fix optical illusions? Dark mode typography gets surprisingly deep.
  • “You don’t need to memorize syntax.” So… what actually makes a real developer?
  • Why did Anthropic really buy Bun? Tell us your opinion​
  • Lottery Every Second: why wait a week for disappointment when you can have it now?

​Using CSS to fix the irradiation illusion

FROM CJ

Adam dives into how to adjust perceived font weight for dark mode without layout shift.

​TanStack AI Alpha: Your AI, Your Way

CJ'S LINK

The TanStack team are giving triangle company a run for it's money with a brand new framework agnostic AI toolkit with major backing by the JS community.

​I​NSPECT​ ​

WES'S FIND

A new background coding agent built by Ramp. It’s totally remote and Sandboxes, built on OpenCode and Cloudflare. You can use it via their snazzy Web UI, a chrome extension or ping it from Slack .
​

​A Website To End All Websites​

ofc CJ's IT's link

The internet used to be a better place. An essay by Henry.

FUN stuff

we love fun

​Lottery Every Second

Why wait a week for disappointment when you can have it every second?

​hexclock​

The current time displayed as a hex color.

The Feed

New videos 3×/week

CJ's CORNER

All Hail The Algorithm

Some good stuff™ from the socials

What makes you a "real developer"?

​Dimitri Mitropoulos tells us why JavaScript is not a good language for the back-end.

​SHAMELESS PLUG​

SENTRY just released Unity SDK 4.0.0 (their biggest update yet):

Console support, logs, user feedback and more

Syntax 2026 × Unsubscribe​

thanks for being a part of the pack 💛 curated by: Kaitlin Bloom

Syntax

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