|  | Ciao,
... here from a sizzling Rome. I spent last week working here, with the thermometer flirting with 40 degrees most afternoons. So I hope this issue brings you a breath of fresh air, purely metaphorical, plus a big blast of full stack inspiration.
You will notice I am indulging more in AI topics. The industry keeps marching that way, so I picked pieces that feel useful, not hypey. We start with a sharp read on why LLMs still struggle to truly build software, then swing to a very practical guide for a fully local AI workspace where code runs safely in a sandbox on macOS. On the front end, give your CSS muscles a workout with interview style questions that expose gaps you did not know you had. For a visual reset, wander through One Million Screenshots, a zoomable map of homepages that is oddly inspiring. React fans get both sides of the coin. a thoughtful reflection on where the community is at, a set of real world case studies from a React and Next.js shop, and a long, spicy critique called “React is Awful” that is worth skimming even if you love it.
Grab a cold drink, find some shade, and dive in. Let me know what sparks for you!
— Your editor, Luciano | “The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice“
— Richard Moore , Computer Scientist
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| Why LLMs Can't Really Build Software — I have been leaning into AI assisted coding with Kiro, Claude Code, and Copilot in agent mode. Collaborating with an AI at that level is fun and sometimes impressive, but I only sometimes got the outcome I hoped for, and I kept wondering if I was the problem. This piece clarified why. Great engineers run a tight loop. Build a mental model of the goal, write code, build a model of what the code actually does, then reconcile the two. LLMs can write, run tests, and add logs, but they struggle to hold that evolving mental model, so they guess or thrash. Until they can juggle context with durable memory, humans drive and the LLM stays a tool. That might be a good thing. Are our full stack jobs safe? I bet yes, at least for a while. But I am certain there is no going back from AI-assisted coding, so we will have to see how much better these tools get. What is your take? Read article | How to Prepare for CSS-Specific Interviews — One thing AI is not going to replace is our knowledge, and how we can bend and mix what we know to imagine and create new designs, apps, and solutions. When it comes to CSS, it is wild how easy it is to underestimate how powerful solid fundamentals are. Even if you like to think you just use Tailwind, you still need a good amount of CSS to do a decent job. So how is your CSS doing? What if you got an interview focused on CSS tomorrow? Would you be ready for it? I admit I went through the questions in this article and I am not sure I would have hired myself... I think I would be barely sufficient to pass... Let me know how you do! Read article | One Million Screenshots — I found a nifty utility last week. One Million Screenshots is a giant, zoomable canvas of more than a million top homepages, and you can pan and click around like Google Maps. I was surprised to spot my own site in there, and the Node.js Design Patterns site too. Why is this useful? I am not fully sure, but it is fun to explore, it sparked a few design ideas, and it feels like a good place to discover famous sites and learn from their layouts. Read article | Building an Offline AI Workspace — I found this one pretty cool. It is a hands on pipeline for a fully local AI workspace, where a local LLM does the planning, then code runs inside a sandboxed VM, and a headless browser can fetch fresh info when needed. Concretely, they wire up Ollama for models, Assistant-UI for the chat front end, a “coderunner” MCP tool that executes code inside an isolated VM, and Playwright for browsing. So you can ask it to research, generate charts from a CSV, trim a video with ffmpeg, or install tools, all inside the sandbox and without touching the host. What surprised me most. They lean on Apple’s new container tool on macOS to get one VM per container, which is a neat fit for executing AI generated code safely. Read article | Reflections on the React community — I stumbled on Lee Robinson’s “Reflections on the React community” and it is a thoughtful read if you build for the web. His core take is simple. React has become boring tech in the best way. Composition and stability keep winning, which is why the ecosystem keeps growing. Where it gets tricky is people and incentives. React itself is non-commercial, so community engagement ebbs and flows. Frameworks on top have different pressures, which shaped how features like React Server Components rolled out. Lee even notes the App Router was marked stable too soon. The good news. RSC, Actions, and Transitions are now stable, and support is spreading beyond Next.js with things like the official Vite plugin and Parcel. The closer is about culture. Remember there are humans on the other side, treat OSS as a gift, and try to be the optimistic change you want to see. Worth the read. Read article | 15 Real-World React Examples In 2025 — This is a practical roundup from a company that builds web apps with React and Next.js, and they showcase a bunch of their recent case studies. Each one spells out the requirements, the solution they chose, and where React actually helped, which makes it easy to steal a few patterns for your own work. I liked how specific they get about goals, trade offs, and stack choices, not just screenshots. If you work in consulting, you can borrow a lot from the way they frame problems and justify decisions. Handy as an idea bank for proposals and architecture docs. Read article | React-is-Awful! — After all those React friendly pieces, let’s swing to a totally different take. React is bad. Actually worse. It is awful. This is a big read, almost book length, split into twenty one markdown chapters on GitHub, free to browse. It is obviously critical of React, but it is also well written and packed with reflection points. Even if you use React every day and love it, it is healthy to study the weak spots, learn a few anti patterns to avoid, and pressure test your own defaults. Worth a skim, or a full read if you are in the mood for a spicy rethink. View Repository | | Accelerating Server-Side Development with Fastify: A comprehensive guide to API development for building a scalable backend for your web appsby Manuel Spigolon, Maksim Sinik, and Matteo Collina | 
| Learn to build faster web applications by implementing maintainable and pluggable APIs with Fastify. Key Features: - Written by Fastify's core contributors to help you adopt the Fastify mindset for API development
- Gain an architectural overview of Fastify's microservices development capabilities and features
- Build complete apps in Fastify, from application design to production
| | Leaving these other ones here... | 👋 That’s all for this week. See you next Monday! Greetings from your full stack friends Luciano & Andrea | | If you enjoy FullStack Bulletin, consider sharing this newsletter with your friends and colleagues.
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