Particles, pixels & creative frontend beyond grid: React Summit US: Day 2

The second day of React Summit US 2025: Day 2 was fully remote setup and it felt much more technical and unexpectedly repetitive, with several talks circling around the React Compiler, memoization, React Scan, and performance profiling.

Even though the talks went in many directions from AI-assisted design workflows to performance tips, RPi experiments, and UI patterns, the day carried one clear theme: the ecosystem is pushing toward faster, smarter, more intentional React.

The hydration talk was nice, showing how selective, viewport-based hydration can solve real SSR performance issues. The design system session added a nice contrast, reminding how much thoughtful engineering goes into truly global UI. And the creative frontend talk closed the day beautifully:

Particles, pixels & purpose

Frontent is where math meets art, where science meets engineering, where curiosity turns into creation.

Cristobal Chao’s talk was the emotional highlight for me. It captured exactly why frontend has always felt like home, the place where creativity and logic meet.

The final slide said:

Do something to make money
Do something you love
One day those two things will be the same
Your job is to keep closing the gap.

It landed perfectly.

This is why I show up every day to create, even on rest days. Because creating is the one place where I feel fully alive.

Tomorrow, I’ll be ready to dive into the next thing again and I’ll dive deeper into all these ideas in a proper blog post soon.