Podcast #50: Insights from Sacha Greif, Prolific Designer, Developer, and Creator

Sacha Greif is well-known in development circles as the creator of high-impact open source projects like Vulcan.js, Sidebar.io, and the massively popular State of JavaScript survey. But in addition to his prolific output as a developer, Sacha is also an accomplished designer and author – making him a polymath of sorts in the web development world.

In Podcast #50 with Quincy Larson of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Sacha traces his eclectic career trajectory while offering insights on emerging web technology trends. From growing up as the son of a computer author in Paris to cuttings his teeth as a dev in Beijing to penning the definitive guide on Meteor.js, Sacha has packed a lot into his still-early career.

From Parisian Upbringing to Global Wanderer

As the son of a well-known computer book author, Sacha Greif was immersed in technology and analytical thinking from childhood. Though his academics lacked structure, Sacha remains an autodidact at heart. He crafted his own self-directed learning path across technical and creative disciplines like coding, design, and writing.

Sacha pinpoints first discovering CSS in the early 2000s as the spark that ignited his passion for web design. Intrigued by the ability to instantly see visual changes on screen when editing code, Sacha set out to master this fusion of technical and creative skills.

However, opportunities to develop this budding talent were limited in Paris. Facing a gloomy job market after university in 2008, Sacha took a chance on moving to China despite minimal language skills or contacts. Over the next 6 years, an intrepid Sacha fully embraced life there freelancing as a web developer and soaking up Chinese language and culture. His time in Beijing not only helped Sacha escape the 2008 recession, it exposed him to a rapidly evolving world of mobile apps and startups.

By 2012 though, worsening pollution and crowded living conditions pushed Sacha and his wife to move again – this time opting for peaceful Kyoto, Japan. The tranquility restored balance while Sacha continued maintaining his Chinese client base remotely. This nomadic lifestyle has become a signature thread across Sacha‘s career arc – chasing inspiration and opportunity from Paris to China to Japan thus far.

Writing the Breakout Guide on Meteor.js

It was whilst based in Kyoto around 2013 that Sacha Greif discovered Meteor.js. And like many developers at that time, he became instantly enamored with its potential for simplifying web app development.

Up until Meteor‘s arrival, even building basic web apps required stitching together different languages and frameworks for client interface, server logic, and databases. Not only was setup convoluted, it often required dev teams with front end, back end and ops specialists.

Meteor promised a radically simpler approach – an integrated full stack JavaScript platform handling everything from database to build tooling out of the box. It meant small teams or even solo developers could build complete modern web apps astonishingly fast compared to the status quo at the time.

As Sacha tinkered with real world Meteor apps, his enthusiasm grew at how it streamlined development workflows. He soon realized documentation severely lagged behind Meteor‘s rapid evolution. Recalling his father‘s successful career authoring computer manuals in France, Sacha felt compelled to write the definitive Meteor guide he wished existed.

Despite no previous experience beyond a short technical blog, Sacha devoted 15 grueling months towards producing Discover Meteor in 2014. Balancing client work with authoring left little time for sleep. Thankfully, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson connected Sacha with technical editor Tom Coleman to refine the content. Sacha remained determined to cover Meteor in meticulous detail as both a reference manual and interactive learning tool for new developers.

The tireless effort paid off – Discover Meteor became the runaway best seller for learning the framework and catapulted Sacha to prominence. While Meteor itself would wane in popularity over ensuing years, the book remains a seminal resource half a decade later.

For Sacha, beyond cementing his status as a Meteor maestro, Discover Meteor‘s financial success provided freedom to pursue riskier passion projects next.

Side Project Turned Overnight Hit – The Sidebar Story

In Sacha‘s own words, the ability Meteor gave developers to build full stack JavaScript apps with ease was “life-changing”. He immediately put it to work scratching his own itch – replacing the RSS feeds and newsletters he loathed staying on top of design news.

Sacha envisioned something Digestible – an elegant daily email curating key design links. Meteor allowed rapidly evolving this idea into a real product. When Sidebar launched readers flocked in far greater numbers than Sacha expected. Subscribers continue growing exponentially years later thanks to crowdsourced content and an easy referral system.

As a seasoned full stack developer myself, I appreciate how Sidebar displays Sacha’s technical competence through clever UI innovations. Using React alongside Meteor enables fluid interactions within the digest. Tagging and search make navigating past issues a breeze. Server-side ops leverage Heroku and automation ensures delivery reliability everyday.

The runaway success of Sidebar as a bootstrapped side project soon led Sacha to leave client work entirely and focus full-time on open source tools aligned to his personal interests. Sidebar gave him both financial means and confidence that scratching his own itch could produce wildly popular developer products.

Prolific Creator of Open Source Hits

In the years after Discover Meteor and Sidebar, Sacha proved adept at churning out a string of useful open source hits. His proven formula combines identifying common dev frustrations then meticulously crafting tools to alleviate them.

VulcanJS arrived in 2015 as an open alternative to Reddit written in – you guessed it – Meteor! The projectMerged Sacha’s coding chops with firsthand insight moderating popular Meteor forums. Instead of just complaining about existing forums Vulcan let Sacha build his own optimized for community engagement.

Like Sidebar Vulcan scratched an itch and offered a compelling new choice attracting thousands of developers. It also cemented Sacha’s reputation for shipping polished products from concept to completion fueled by his personal motivation.

In 2016 Sacha spearheaded the inaugural State of JavaScript survey to help developers benchmark popular JS libraries. Frustrated by the challenging task manually evaluating endless new frameworks himself, Sacha created the survey to crowdsource wisdom from the trenches.

Involving over 20,000 developers over successive years, State of JS has become an authoritative barometer for the dizzying JavaScript landscape. Alongside downloads and GitHub stars, it provides empirical validation helping developers choose solutions.

Just reviewing State of JS data offers intriguing insights into recent web development trends:

We see React already dominating by 2016 before consolidating its lead further. Vue enjoyment a stellar rise from emerging contender to established player. And Angular largely failing to keep pace despite Google backing.

For Meteor JS – Sacha’s beloved framework behind many projects – usage remains steady but modest over the years:

As a full stack developer I believe Meteor offered a revolutionary approach when it emerged. But competition from alternatives means it hasn’t achieved mass adoption outside its loyal following.

Nonetheless, what Sacha and State of JS have clearly demonstrated is the value developers place on unbiased community perspectives guiding their technology choices. This grassroots data complements technical analysis and docs when evaluating new tools.

Key Takeaways from Sacha’s Story

Throughout Sacha’s conversation with Quincy Larson in Podcast #50, a few key themes emerge offering lessons for other developers:

1. Doggedly pursue self-direction opportunities – from dropping out of formal French education to mastering Chinese abroad, Sacha repeatedly places self-motivation over structure

2. Let frustration drive innovation – rather than idly complaining online, Sacha builds his own solutions – Vulcan instead of Reddit or State of JS replacing countless hours evaluating frameworks

3. Merge technical and creative disciplines – Sacha stands out by holistically blending interests across writing, design and development instead of siloed skills

4. Scratch your own itch first – Sacha’s most viral projects fulfill his own needs before resonating more widely. Today’s hobby could be tomorrow’s hot startup!

5. Help communities share wisdom – grassroots surveys like State of JS leverage crowd sentiment for better group decisions. Vulcan and Sidebar also rely on users fueling content.

6. Master versatility across specialties – from solo coding to collaborating on complex apps, Sacha can operate as writer, designer or developer interchangeably

7. Ship polished products – Sacha focuses on refined end to end user experiences from Discover Meteor to Sidebar instead of half-baked MVPs

Despite being in his early 30s, Sacha Greif boasts an extraordinary track record shipping products used and loved by developer communities worldwide. Driven by diverse passions, he merges technical and creative abilities to build helpful tools. For developers and entrepreneurs alike, Sacha‘s path offers an inspirational model – pursue your interests fearlessly and obsess over products scratching your own itch first. The rest is likely to follow.