Alex Reardon

Frontend Engineering Bushwalk

Come relax and nerd out with me as I go for a bushwalk and talk through my learnings, ideas, and challenges in frontend engineering

Author

Alex Reardon

Category

Technology

Podcast website

bushwalk.chat

Latest episode

May 18, 2026

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Episodes

AI for private data 18.05.2026

Alex discusses his recent explorations with using AI for sensitive data, challenges of data importing, privacy concerns, hosting AI models, and the decision to use Anthropic with informed consent. Takeaways AI for sensitive data importing Privacy concerns and data scrubbing Chapters 00:00 Exploring AI for Sensitive Data 09:16 Hosting AI Models and Cost Considerations

Single threaded AI 11.05.2026

The conversation delves into the impact of AI on mental health, the pitfalls of parallel thinking, recognizing burnout and limitations, and balancing AI productivity and sustainability. It explores the challenges and considerations of integrating AI into work and personal life, emphasizing the importance of mental well-being and sustainable practices. Takeaways AI and mental health Parallel thinki...

Detail views: inline, pages, modals or side panels? 🤔 06.04.2026

The conversation delves into the challenges of displaying entity information in UI development, exploring options such as inline display, full page navigation, modals, and side panels. It highlights the trade-offs and complexities of each approach, emphasizing the importance of context and user experience. The discussion ultimately focuses on the decision-making process between using modals and si...

Tooltips for truncated text 30.03.2026

The conversation delves into the use of conditional tooltips and the challenges associated with truncation in user interfaces. It explores the need for custom tooltip abstractions, the drawbacks of truncation, and the optimization of tooltip display to enhance user experience.

Cheap realtime experiences with Supabase and Next.js 09.03.2026

The conversation explores the challenges and solutions related to live data updates in applications. It delves into the complexities of consolidating data paths and optimizing data fetching, highlighting the use of SuperBase and real-time libraries to handle data changes effectively. The approach emphasizes keeping the client light while leveraging server-side logic for a snappy user experience. T...

AI and personal boundaries 02.03.2026

The conversation explores the impact of AI tools on productivity and the challenges of setting boundaries in the context of emerging AI technology. It delves into the addictive nature of AI tools and the struggle to maintain intentional boundaries in work and personal life. Takeaways Productivity with AI tools Struggling with setting boundaries Chapters 00:00 Productivity with AI Tools

Dabbling with AI 23.02.2026

The conversation explores the use of AI in application development, debugging, learning, and productivity. It highlights the impact of AI on problem-solving, understanding, and accelerating workflow. The speaker shares experiences of using AI as a productivity tool and its positive impact on learning and understanding. Takeaways AI as a productivity tool AI's impact on learning and understanding

Auto dismiss 16.02.2026

The conversation explores the concept of auto dismissal of UI elements, discussing its benefits and drawbacks. It delves into the idea of activity logs and undo actions, the handling of auto dismissal behavior, and the use of visual cues for auto dismissal. Takeaways include the importance of providing visual cues for auto dismissal and the consideration of activity logs for undo actions. Takeaway...

Sidebar resizing 09.02.2026

The conversation covers the topic of sidebar resizing behavior, visual indications for resizing, and primary and secondary actions in drag and drop. It explores the discoverability of resizing, hitbox and interaction considerations, and the impact of resizing on layout. Additionally, it discusses interaction patterns for sidebar behavior and the user experience associated with different interactio...

Dynamic styles in Tailwind 02.02.2026

The conversation covers an in-depth exploration of dynamic styles in Tailwind CSS, discussing the use of utility classes, string concatenation, data selectors, and the limitations of dynamic styling. It also delves into the potential future solutions for dynamic styles in Tailwind CSS. Takeaways Tailwind CSS uses utility classes for styling Dynamic styles in Tailwind CSS can be achieved through st...

Side projects 26.01.2026

Alex Reardon discusses the joy of side projects, their impact on skill development, and the sense of control and liberation they provide. He shares his experience with a spending tracker app and the motivation behind working on side projects. Takeaways Side projects provide joy and fulfillment through the act of creation. Side projects accelerate skill development and provide a sense of control an...

Using cookies for UI state 19.01.2026

The conversation explores the use of cookies for persistent UI state, covering various options for storing UI state, the challenges of using different storage mechanisms, and the advantages and drawbacks of using cookies for UI preferences. Takeaways Persistent UI state can be stored using various mechanisms such as local storage, session storage, local DB, and the URL. Using cookies for persisten...

Layering with popovers 17.01.2026

The conversation explores the challenges and solutions related to layering in the browser, the difficulties in positioning layering components, and the benefits of using the Popover API for managing layering components effectively. Takeaways Layering in the browser Challenges with positioning layering components Benefits of using the Popover API

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