Reusing is not repeating

I’ll be honest: I’ve been through the “copy and paste” phase because “hey, it’s just two more lines.” By the third time, it wasn’t two lines anymore—it was a mini-Frankenstein that was hard to maintain. That’s when I realized that reuse isn’t cloning; it’s designing so you can use something again without pain.

With React I learned that real speed doesn’t come from typing faster, but from building pieces you can use over and over without breaking anything.

Why does React shine with reusable components?

• Simple mental model: props go in, UI comes out. That one-way flow lets you create predictable pieces.
• Composition over inheritance: you snap components together like LEGO; you don’t need monsters with ten flags.
• Clean separation of logic and view: the UI lives in components; shared logic lives in custom hooks. You reuse both without tangled wires.
• Local, controlled state: you decide where state lives so the piece is portable and doesn’t depend on the entire universe.

Reusing in React isn’t “copy and paste”; it’s designing component APIs that other parts of the app will want to use.

React gives you the perfect ground for painless reuse: small, predictable, composable pieces. If you mix it with Atomic Design, CDD, and a handful of good habits, you go from “I have three different cards” to “I have a system.” And when you have a system, you ship more—with fewer surprises.