alt Hacker NewsI feel like listening to Theo about anything technical is like consulting a Labrador retriever for advice on quantum physics.
Every time I've ever seen one of his videos it's pretty clear he has very little understanding of development or engineering. I first became aware of him from his early "unit tests are a waste of time" stuff, and it seems his skillset is building a personal brand. Fair play, he's clearly talented at that, but that doesn't make his opinion on anything else worthwhile.
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He has big 'theatre kid' energy (at least certainly had, watched him years ago) - he desperately wants to make clear that there's a group of cool kids and he's in it.
His youtube channel used to be about talking about the new FOTM Javascript framework/technology - not presented as 'here's a cool thing, let's check it out' but 'everyone worth a damn already uses this, get with the times grandpa'
"Average Theo video be like": https://youtu.be/h1p9zdUtUdo
It's shocking how many accurate tropes this hits.
There's a simpler explanation. Social media rewards surprise and hype, not truth. Don't expect objectivity from someone who gets paid by the view.
And half his videos are him coming up with indirect ways of saying look how amazing I am.
There is a whole religion about tests that is worth attacking though
i already found his clear shilling of nextjs a bit distasteful, but his whole gpt-5 thing really just made it clear he's just not worth listening to.
> it's pretty clear he has very little understanding of development or engineering
I cannot prove it but I have a feeling that you may be conflating "he clearly has different opinions on things I consider non-negotiable" to "he doesn't know what he's talking about".
I also watched a lot of his videos. I wildly disagree with him a lot of times, but he has his reasoning, and I can see (and verify!) that those ideas are coming from an engineering perspective.