My complete tech stack to stay SUPER employable.
AI Summary
This video provides a comprehensive overview of a complete tech stack designed for maximum employability, presented by a full-time contractor and solo founder with 15 years of experience.
Core Philosophy
The presenter advocates for consistency and sticking to industry-standard tools rather than constantly learning new frameworks. The key principle is: “the best tech stack is the one you already know” - focusing on mastery over novelty to remain employable and move fast across projects.
Complete Tech Stack
Frontend Framework
- React + TypeScript across all projects
- Rationale: Most in-demand skill set (99% of job offers), extensive ecosystem
- Allows building websites, mobile apps, server-side rendering, and CLIs
- Transferable skills across web and mobile development
Mobile Development
- React Native for cross-platform apps
- Benefits from existing React knowledge and skills transfer
- Modern React Native is highly performant, even on older Android devices
- Hot reloading and excellent developer experience with Expo
Server-Side
- Node.js + TypeScript
- Enables full-stack development with consistent language
- High demand for product engineers who work across the full stack
- Shared build tools, testing, and deployment processes
API Layer
- GraphQL (5+ years of heavy investment)
- Benefits: End-to-end type safety, automated documentation, standardized spec
- Fast implementation once proficient (faster than REST for the presenter)
- Consistent across projects regardless of team or company
State Management
- Standard React State + Context for 99% of use cases
- Advocates for simplicity over complex state management libraries
- GraphQL clients (Urql, Apollo) handle data layer caching
- Rarely needs Redux, Jotai, or Zustand for most projects
UI Library
- Chakra UI (currently version 3)
- Preference over Tailwind due to cleaner DOM appearance
- Feature-rich with extensive component library
- Similar to ShadCN with importable component snippets
- Years of familiarity enable rapid development
Authentication
- Self-rolled solutions or npm packages (NextAuth, Better Auth)
- Avoids third-party services like Auth0 due to complexity and cost
- NextAuth for Next.js projects with multiple OAuth providers
- Simple JWT management for single-provider apps (e.g., Apple login)
Hosting
- Heroku for full applications (no cold starts, always-on servers)
- Netlify for static/frontend-only deployments
- Native integrations with PostgreSQL, Redis, and storage
- Automatic deployments and extensive platform experience
Database
- PostgreSQL exclusively
- Scales from tiny to massive datasets
- Extensible: can serve as relational DB, queue system, and vector database
- Wide platform support and native integrations
Additional Tools
Queues and Vector Databases
- PostgreSQL with extensions handles these requirements
- No need for separate services due to PostgreSQL’s extensibility
AI/LLM Integration
- LangGraph (available in Python and Node.js)
- Enables complex agent flows and tool calling
- Easy LLM provider switching (OpenAI, Claude, Grok)
- Built-in web access and document processing capabilities
Key Takeaways
- Consistency across the stack reduces learning overhead
- Industry-standard tools provide better employability
- Deep expertise in one ecosystem beats shallow knowledge of many
- Users care about functionality, not the underlying technology
- The React/TypeScript ecosystem is currently the most employable skill set
- Focus on solving problems rather than learning the latest tools
This approach emphasizes practical employability and rapid development over technology novelty, making it ideal for contractors, solo founders, and developers seeking maximum market value.