In this episode of Seniors at Scale, host Dan Neciu dives deep into the world of state management with Daishi Kato, the prolific open-source author and maintainer behind three of the most widely used libraries in modern React: Zustand, Jotai, and Valtio. Daishi also shares insights into his new project, Waku, a framework built around React Server Components.
Daishi has spent nearly a decade building modern open-source tools that expertly balance simplicity with scalability. He shares how the announcement of React Hooks got him excited and led him to pick global state as his field to explore, as it was "more like logic" and "off look and feel".
We break down the core philosophies and technical trade-offs between his state management trifecta:
Zustand (Zastan): Described as a single global store or global variable. It is minimal, and its philosophical difference from Redux is that it doesn't use reducers.
Jotai (Jyotai): Defined as a set of atom definitions, structured more like functions than a single global store. Daishi explains how the concept evolved from a need to avoid JavaScript proxies and selectors for better rendering optimization.
Valtio (Valtio): This library is fundamentally based on just using JavaScript objects. It re-introduces proxy-based reactivity because Daishi realized that proxies were now "recognized" and acceptable in the community. We discuss its hook-based API, which differentiates it from MobX's observer pattern.
The conversation then moves to the future of React development with Waku, which Daishi started as an experiment to learn how state management interacts with React Server Components. He explains Waku is suited for small-to-medium-sized web applications and static sites and discusses his vision for it to coexist with, rather than beat, Next.js.
What makes Zustand, Jotai, and Valtio different: Global Store vs. Atom Definitions vs. JavaScript Objects.
The philosophical difference between Zustand and Redux: Redux is reducers, Zustand is not.
How Jotai's atom concept evolved and its goal of render optimization without selectors.
Why Valtio embraced proxies and how its hook-based API differs from MobX.
The origin story of Waku as an experiment with React Server Components.
How React 18's useSyncExternalStore made Zustand even smaller.
The challenge of maintaining four popular open-source libraries, with Waku being the current focus.
Daishi’s strategy for rejecting feature requests for minimal libraries like Zustand: "We reject everything".
Why Daishi prefers a competitive community over a built-in React state manager.
Which of his libraries (Jotai) is best suited for use within Waku, as it is an abstraction of state that works on both client and server.
If you're managing global state in React, interested in the internals of popular open-source tools, or curious about the future with React Server Components, this episode is a must-listen.
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🌐 Daishi's Libraries: https://github.com/pmndrs🌐 Waku: https://github.com/dai-shi/waku🌐 SICP Book: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
#react #zustand #jotai #valtio #waku #statemanagement #javascript #opensource #softwareengineering #frontend #webdevelopment #señorsatscale
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