Not to get too excited, but we finally did it, we started a podcast. Software Mention is our new series where we invite people who genuinely shape the React Native world and we talk to them about everything that seems important and interesting at the moment.

For the first episode, we invited Simon Grimm. If you've ever learned anything about React Native from YouTube, there's a good chance it was from him. Over 120,000 subscribers, 10+ years in the space, founder of Galaxies.dev – Simon has watched this ecosystem grow from the inside, and he has a lot to say about where it's going.

Check the full episode yourself or read a few highlights from his conversation with Tomek Zawadzki below.

What made Simon Grimm start documenting his work?

“Honestly, back then I got into it because I just tried new technology next to my job. I tried to use Dart for a project I wanted to use and there were essentially no resources out there. So I just thought, well, maybe I should just document my stuff. I brought up a blog, that's what people did back then. By the way, people in 2015 already said blogging is dead, but guess what? It still worked out. So you're never really late for that stuff.”

How to avoid burning out as a tech content creator?

“I just always try to be consistent, like every week I drop a tutorial. I saw so many people start a YouTube channel. They throw out five videos in the first seven days. And then there's like one video in the next 30 days. And then you see one, three months after. So, it's really about consistency and just sticking with your plans. I can produce a lot in a short duration, but that will burn me out. By following this slow approach, I was able to enjoy YouTube all the time. I still enjoy making videos and helping people, which other people might not do.”

What does it actually look like to build a mobile game with Claude?

“Tiny Harvest wouldn't exist without AI. I'm absolutely honest with that. I get some bad comments when I share this on Reddit where people say this is so bad, all the images were AI generated. And I'm like, yeah, but that game just wouldn't exist without AI. And it's not just the images. I rely basically 95% on LLMs. I use Claude Code with the Opus 4.5 model. If I have a long list of bugs, I just go to Claude. I open up a new window and say, okay, check the 12 hour mission diamond drops. Please, increase the daily merchant crate size image next to the coins. I just do these prompts. I reference the files and I rarely actually at this point review for these small things.”

Are developers right to be scared of AI replacing their skills?

“You have gained so many skills over the years, you learned for like 10, 20, 30 years, how to build software and the syntax, and you've been with PHP since five versions or whatever. And now AI can just write that code and all the things you learned for about 20 years basically become obsolete in like two months. And that scares the shit out of people, out of every developer I know. I've seen so many tweets from developers, from content creators, like all over the board. Everyone is just scared of that stuff. And so, I don't know if these are the same people that just don't use AI or, some people probably just like, you know, you can buy bread in the supermarket or you can say, I only buy the handcrafted bread from the local market. And I think this is kind of the same. There will be some people in the future that say, I only use handwritten code. Only handwritten code, I'm not accepting AI written code. It's for me, probably the same level. I sometimes buy bread in the supermarket. I like to use AI in my app. Everything that makes my life and shipping apps easier is okay to me. And so I just can't understand how you cannot accept that AI is here.”

Are coding tutorials dead?

“I have a really hard time seeing how people are going to watch a four hour coding video where I type every single line by hand in about 6 to 12 months. I did actually create one which comes out in February, which will be called something like How I Would Learn React Native in 2026. And essentially I don't write a line of code in there. I do prompts with AI and then I explain the mental models behind this. My take on it is that I can do more of these mental models, architecture kind of videos, and that the writing code by hand videos are essentially done.”

What happens when you fully commit to building with AI?

“I don't leave the house for a walk unless I have started a long running Claude task. I'm trying to max out everything. Like, every minute before leaving the house, I'm starting something. Just saying AI didn't work because I tried it once and it generated bad code is just not a good excuse anymore. You're missing out on so much acceleration. People alone can ship giant things. This application, my game, Tiny Harvest – people say, what's the team behind this? And I'm like, it's just me and Claude.”

The takeaway

We could have pulled twice as many highlights, but we didn’t want to spoil you the whole thing. There's a lot more in the full talk – Simon Grimm goes deep on the React Native ecosystem, the future of online courses, and what it actually feels like to build software right now. Watch the full episode on Spotify and YouTube.