Why are web applications slow, and what to do about it | Misko Hevery | ng-conf 2022

Discover the hidden bottlenecks in web applications and learn how to optimize JavaScript for improved performance, explore resumable frameworks, web workers, and server-side rendering to boost your web app's speed and interactivity.

Key takeaways
  • Frameworks often make things slower, not faster, due to their approach and tooling.
  • JavaScript is singled-threaded, making it a bottleneck.
  • Resumable frameworks can improve start-up performance, but most websites are red or yellow, indicating slow performance.
  • Optimizing JavaScript can help, but it’s not enough; we need a different approach.
  • Delegating JavaScript to a web worker can improve interactivity and startup performance.
  • Server-side rendering is not a solution; it’s a type of baking cake.
  • Resumable frameworks can help, but they’re not the only solution.
  • JavaScript is increasing in size, making it harder to optimize.
  • Optimizing images and CSS is important, but it’s not enough; we need to focus on JavaScript.
  • Third-party code can be slow and block page loading.
  • Resumable frameworks can help speed up page loading and interactivity.
  • Dealing with JavaScript and its overhead is crucial.
  • Frameworks can make things slower, not faster.
  • Optimizing JavaScript and images can help, but we need to focus on the core problem.
  • JavaScript is increasing exponentially, making optimization harder.
  • Resumable frameworks can help, but we need a new approach to JavaScript.