Cathy Lai

React Native developer with a background in large-scale ecommerce systems. I write about practical, real-world mobile architecture — clean flows, offline-first patterns, and apps that feel good to use

Auckland, New Zealand Joined on Aug 6, 2022 http://cathylai.info

Cathy Lai

Dec 4

Coding with AI (Cursor + auto mode) Diary #1 - Practical Notes

#ai #coding #tooling #productivity

1 min read

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Cathy Lai

Dec 3

Making My React Native App Work Offline [MyNextHome]

#mobile #reactnative #buildinpublic #localfirstapp

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 3

Why Every Developer Needs a Business Mindset in the AI Era

#discuss #ai #career

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 3

Fixing "Network Request Failed" in React Native: The localhost Problem

#reactnative #mobile #expo

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 1

[MyNextHome] Simple Backend Server (Supabase) with Express JS

#node #supabase #postgres #buildinpublic

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 28

[MyNextHome] Server Backend to add Supabase!

#node #supabase #buildinpublic

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 27

[MyNextHome] Simple Data Model + Sync Flow

#buildinpublic #reactnative #mobile

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 27

Building an Offline-First Open Home Notes App (Because I Needed It) [MyNextHome]

#buildinpublic #reactnative #localfirst #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 26

The Silent Struggle of the High-Achiever: Why your own high standards are making you tired

#discuss #mentalhealth #career #productivity

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 21

JS Thread, Native UI Thread, The Bridge and the Shadow Layer in React Native - analogy

#reactnative

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 19

⭐ 5 Power Mindsets for Tech Interviews

#motivation #interview #productivity #career

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 18

🛒 Understand Redux State Management: The Department Store analogy

#redux #react #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 18

Technical Interviews - it's not a pass/ fail

#writing #interview #productivity #career

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 18

Context API vs. Zustand: Why Your E-Commerce App Needs a Bear (Not a Provider)

#react #performance #javascript #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 15

useRef() and how it prevents flicker in a Map component

#javascript #react #ui #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 15

Understanding React Native Navigation Lifecycle

#javascript #mobile #reactnative

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 12

Image Load Races in React Native - Fix It in One Line

#reactnative #racecondition #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 11

Upgrading Expo to 54 - and making Cursor give the latest instructions

#reactnative #tooling #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 11

How to Use Path Aliases '@' in React Native with Expo

#tutorial #productivity #reactnative #typescript

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 11

Do Parentheses Matter in Arrow Functions? A TypeScript Deep Dive

#beginners #tutorial #javascript #typescript

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 9

Understanding Async Functions: Why You Don't Need `Promise.resolve()` in `async` Functions

#javascript #learning #typescript

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 31

Building a Full-Stack E-Commerce Site with Lovable: From Zero to Production

#fullstack #beginners #webdev #tutorial

6 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 29

Self-paced Learning End-to-End Testing with Claude AI

#testing #javascript #ai #beginners

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 28

React Native Navigation: Why useEffect Doesn’t Run When You Go Back

#reactnative #mobile

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 21

Understanding Rate Limiting — Keeping APIs Fair, Fast, and Friendly

#security #architecture #api #performance

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 20

Run an iOS app on your MacBook in 1 hour

#reactnative #beginners #ios #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 17

Getting Started with Tamagui: A Complete Guide to Modern React Native Styling

#reactnative #design #mobile #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 17

How I Ship My Apps while having a full time job

#sideprojects #productivity #mobile #chatgpt

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 16

Beyond REST: Microservices, Resilience, and Real-World Teamwork

#api #architecture #microservices

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 16

Next-Level REST Concepts: Idempotency, Caching, and Beyond

#api #architecture #backend

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 15

RESTful Services 101 — A Practical Guide for Frontend and Backend Developers

#javascript #php #architecture #api

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 15

Why Every Microservice Should Have Its Own Database

#architecture #database #microservices

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 12

How to Set Up Reactotron to Debug AsyncStorage in React Native

#reactnative #tutorial #productivity #tooling

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 12

Choosing the Right Storage Solution

#reactnative #mmkv #sqlite #mobile

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 11

Managing Global Settings in React Native: A Clean Context API Approach

#react #reactnative #typescript #tutorial

5 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 11

How to Set Up NativeWind (Tailwind CSS) in Your Expo React Native App

#reactnative #tailwindcss #tutorial

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 10

Uploading Photos from Your React Native App to Cloudinary (with Expo)

#reactnative #cloud #javascript #tutorial

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 9

React Explained: Mount vs Render (and Why It Matters in React Native)

#beginners #react #reactnative

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 9

Adding Google Maps in React Native page

#google #reactnative #typescript #tutorial

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 8

Jest Cheatsheets

#testing #javascript #tutorial #beginners

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 8

Getting Started with Jest

#beginners #testing #javascript #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 6

Create a React Native Project (bun + Expo development built)

#reactnative #javascript #tutorial #tooling

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 4

Release workflow for sole developer

#devops #productivity #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 4

How to sync iOS build numbers (Expo + EAS + App Store Connect)

#reactnative #tutorial #ios #devops

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 3

Supabase config in your Expo project - the proper way

#supabase #reactnative #programming #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 21

useMemo and useCallback Explained

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 21

useEffect() detail explanation

#javascript #react #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 19

Common Stale Closure Bugs in React

#javascript #react #tutorial

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 18

Closures

#beginners #javascript #programming

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 18

Factory Functions in useMemo()

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 4

Run Your Expo App on a Physical Phone (with a Development Build) — Expo 53 + Expo Router

#mobile #reactnative #tutorial

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Aug 28

Tap a City Generate an Image (Next.js API + Expo)

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Aug 28

Image Generation with OpenAI (Step‑by‑Step Tutorial)

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Aug 25

Image Generation with OpenAI (Step‑by‑Step Tutorial)

3 min read

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