Mikhail Sakhniuk is the author of React and React Native we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Mikhail : Web Development. TypeScript, React and React Native
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Mikhail: It’s been a consistent process of my growth when I’ve noticed I can’t only consume information anymore and now I want to share my experience. Since I started writing articles, I realized how helpful they are to me in structuring my thoughts. It was a habit of mine to read something new every day in the first years of my career. But now I see my growth in sharing my knowledge. So, last few years, I am writing articles and tweets about WEB development. And once the manager from Packt reached me in DM to ask if I can help them to review a book. After productive work as a technical reviewer I got an offer to be an author. This is also one advantage to sharing your skills – new opportunities could find you.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Mikhail: This is an interesting question because when I started working on the book I thought I don’t need to do any research because I have a lot of expertise in React Native. But I was wrong. When you want to create a great chapter, you need to revise a lot of information and different experience to make the best one.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Mikhail : It was so challenging to make a good code examples. I’ve been spending a lot of time on it while I am working on chapters. For getting inspiration I’ve read a lot of examples in open-source projects. And it actually trained my skills as well.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Mikhail: React Native is a really powerful tool. And we can thank JavaScript and Meta for that. With just one tech stack we can implement web and mobile apps and reuse almost all business logic. For businesses, it means a lot because it decreases the cost of developments and at the same time increases the speed of delivering a product. For newbies this easy way to go into mobile and web development and learn only tech stack. It doesn’t mean we can replace native mobile developers, but the niche for React Native apps is huge and it will scale in the future.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Mikhail: This book is basic to React and React Native and you will be able to start to develop your own app just from one book. That’s why it’s already in its fourth edition.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Mikhail: As a web developer, you are able to create mobile applications using the same technologies, and you just need to understand the differences in architecture and approaches. Being able to build web and mobile apps makes you a more valuable employee for any company.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Mikhail: 1) Learn how to find information. When you are stuck somewhere, just know you are not alone. Thousand people like you already resolved the problem and even shared it with the world. Try to find the answer, 2) Ask questions. There are millions of chats and groups on all social media, where you can ask and discuss related topics. 3) Find a mentor. A lot of skilled developers would like to help someone with the first steps in IT. Just try to ask.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Mikhail : Yes, you can find me on Medium: https://sakhniuk.medium.com/
DEV Community: https://dev.to/sakhnyuk
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Mikhail : I love reading DEV Community . It also is good to check Twitter. Many people share articles and news about Tech there.
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Mikhail : I think Packt is the best company where you can try to write your first book. There are awesome managers and editors who will help you on every step. This is my first book and I hope on the last in Packt.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Mikhail : I am participating few local community groups related to React and Web dev. This is actually a great way to have friends and an opportunity to join meetups and conferences as a speaker.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Mikhail : Mostly I am reading Twitter and Reddit to have fresh news on Tech. This is also a great place to have a talk with the community and see what people think about new tools that announcing every day.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Mikhail : As I have a full-time job, I was able to work on my book in the evenings and on weekends. I did not have a problem with this since I always work on weekends on my own projects.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Mikhail : Working on the book taught me one of the best approaches – don’t touch previous sections while you are writing the current one. Sometimes I jump between paragraphs in order to write the best section, but when I return to start, I lose the thread of the topic. Don’t do that – finish your thought, then check and fix it.
You can find Mikhail’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
