Cathy Lai

React Native developer with a background in large-scale e-commerce and SaaS systems.

Auckland, New Zealand Joined on Aug 6, 2022 http://cathylai.info

React, React Native, Expo, Next js

Node.js, Next.js, React Native

Writing a React Native mobile app publishing guide - I've found the whole process confusing, so I hope this guide helps others. PDF on cathylai.info/blog

Mobile App ideas!

67 posts published

13 comments written

5 tags followed

Pinned

Cathy Lai

Dec 17 '25

Where Do I "Host" My Mobile App?

#mobile #reactnative #ios #android

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 30 '25

Gratitude...

#buildinpublic #community #gratitude

1 min read

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Cathy Lai

Dec 29 '25

Why AI Fails at OAuth and How I Got Unstuck

#ai #reactnative #oauth #expo

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 28 '25

The Hidden Gold in Your GitHub

#programming #career #buildinpublic

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 25 '25

Login With Google via Supabase Auth: What Each Provider is Really Doing

#reactnative #react #supabase #oauth

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 25 '25

AI Writes Code — But It Couldn't Have Invented Expo Router

#ai #reactnative #career #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 22 '25

What Publishing a Mobile App Involves: Hardware + Software

#ios #android #reactnative #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 22 '25

My Progress: Why I Wrote Down Everything I Learned About Mobile App Deployment

#learning #mobile #softwaredevelopment #beginners

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 19 '25

How Guillermo Rauch (the Creator of Next.JS) Evolves in the Age of AI

#leadership #career #productivity #ai

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 14 '25

Kodak vs Fuji-film: What They Taught Developers About the AI Age

#ai #career #developers #careerdevelopment

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 11 '25

🛠️ "I Updated EAS CLI, But I'm Still Being Warned!" The Secret Life of Your Terminal PATH

#tooling #cli #reactnative #node

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 8 '25

How to Sell Your Mobile/App Project on Gumroad — Easier Than You Think!

#startup #mobile #tutorial #productivity

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 8 '25

Google Sign In for React Native (via Supabase Auth): Overview

#supabase #reactnative #authentication

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 4 '25

Coding with AI (Cursor + auto mode) Diary #1 - Practical Notes

#ai #coding #tooling #productivity

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 3 '25

Making My React Native App Work Offline [MyNextHome]

#mobile #reactnative #buildinpublic #localfirstapp

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 3 '25

Why Every Developer Needs a Business Mindset in the AI Era

#discuss #ai #career

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 3 '25

Fixing "Network Request Failed" in React Native: The localhost Problem

#reactnative #mobile #expo

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Dec 1 '25

[MyNextHome] Simple Backend Server (Supabase) with Express JS

#node #supabase #postgres #buildinpublic

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 28 '25

[MyNextHome] Server Backend to add Supabase!

#node #supabase #buildinpublic

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 27 '25

[MyNextHome] Simple Data Model + Sync Flow

#buildinpublic #reactnative #mobile

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 27 '25

Building an Offline-First Open Home Notes App (Because I Needed It) [MyNextHome]

#buildinpublic #reactnative #localfirst #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 26 '25

The Silent Struggle of the High-Achiever: Why your own high standards are making you tired

#discuss #mentalhealth #career #productivity

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 21 '25

JS Thread, Native UI Thread, The Bridge and the Shadow Layer in React Native - analogy

#reactnative

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 19 '25

⭐ 5 Power Mindsets for Tech Interviews

#motivation #interview #productivity #career

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 18 '25

🛒 Understand Redux State Management: The Department Store analogy

#redux #react #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 18 '25

Technical Interviews - it's not a pass/ fail

#writing #interview #productivity #career

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 18 '25

Context API vs. Zustand: Why Your E-Commerce App Needs a Bear (Not a Provider)

#react #performance #javascript #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 15 '25

useRef() and how it prevents flicker in a Map component

#javascript #react #ui #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 15 '25

Understanding React Native Navigation Lifecycle

#javascript #mobile #reactnative

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 12 '25

Image Load Races in React Native - Fix It in One Line

#reactnative #racecondition #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 11 '25

Upgrading Expo to 54 - and making Cursor give the latest instructions

#reactnative #tooling #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 11 '25

How to Use Path Aliases '@' in React Native with Expo

#tutorial #productivity #reactnative #typescript

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 11 '25

Do Parentheses Matter in Arrow Functions? A TypeScript Deep Dive

#beginners #tutorial #javascript #typescript

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Nov 9 '25

Understanding Async Functions: Why You Don't Need `Promise.resolve()` in `async` Functions

#javascript #learning #typescript

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 31 '25

Building a Full-Stack E-Commerce Site with Lovable: From Zero to Production

#fullstack #beginners #webdev #tutorial

6 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 29 '25

Self-paced Learning End-to-End Testing with Claude AI

#testing #javascript #ai #beginners

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 28 '25

React Native Navigation: Why useEffect Doesn’t Run When You Go Back

#reactnative #mobile

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 21 '25

Understanding Rate Limiting — Keeping APIs Fair, Fast, and Friendly

#security #architecture #api #performance

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 20 '25

Run an iOS app on your MacBook in 1 hour

#reactnative #beginners #ios #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 17 '25

Getting Started with Tamagui: A Complete Guide to Modern React Native Styling

#reactnative #design #mobile #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 17 '25

How I Ship My Apps while having a full time job

#sideprojects #productivity #mobile #chatgpt

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 16 '25

Beyond REST: Microservices, Resilience, and Real-World Teamwork

#api #architecture #microservices

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 16 '25

Next-Level REST Concepts: Idempotency, Caching, and Beyond

#api #architecture #backend

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 15 '25

RESTful Services 101 — A Practical Guide for Frontend and Backend Developers

#javascript #php #architecture #api

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 15 '25

Why Every Microservice Should Have Its Own Database

#architecture #database #microservices

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 12 '25

How to Set Up Reactotron to Debug AsyncStorage in React Native

#reactnative #tutorial #productivity #tooling

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 12 '25

Choosing the Right Storage Solution

#reactnative #mmkv #sqlite #mobile

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 11 '25

Managing Global Settings in React Native: A Clean Context API Approach

#react #reactnative #typescript #tutorial

5 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 11 '25

How to Set Up NativeWind (Tailwind CSS) in Your Expo React Native App

#reactnative #tailwindcss #tutorial

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 10 '25

Uploading Photos from Your React Native App to Cloudinary (with Expo)

#reactnative #cloud #javascript #tutorial

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 9 '25

React Explained: Mount vs Render (and Why It Matters in React Native)

#beginners #react #reactnative

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 9 '25

Adding Google Maps in React Native page

#google #reactnative #typescript #tutorial

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 8 '25

Jest Cheatsheets

#testing #javascript #tutorial #beginners

4 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 8 '25

Getting Started with Jest

#beginners #testing #javascript #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 6 '25

Create a React Native Project (bun + Expo development built)

#reactnative #javascript #tutorial #tooling

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 4 '25

Release workflow for sole developer

#devops #productivity #reactnative

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 4 '25

How to sync iOS build numbers (Expo + EAS + App Store Connect)

#reactnative #tutorial #ios #devops

3 min read

Cathy Lai

Oct 3 '25

Supabase config in your Expo project - the proper way

#supabase #reactnative #programming #mobile

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 21 '25

useMemo and useCallback Explained

1 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 21 '25

useEffect() detail explanation

#javascript #react #tutorial

2 min read

Cathy Lai

Sep 19 '25

Common Stale Closure Bugs in React

#javascript #react #tutorial

3 min read

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