Every React Developer Uses Hooks. Almost None Can Explain How They Work.

title: "Every React Developer Uses Hooks. Almost None Can Explain How They Work." description: A from-scratch build of React's hooks system reveals that the rules aren't arbitrary — they're inevitable consequences of a linked list with a cursor. tags: [react, hooks, javascript, internals, deep-dive] date: 2026-04-08 My friend Marcos has been writing React for nearly three years. Production dashboards, complex state, the whole thing. One evening, over coffee, hooks came up. "Do you know how hooks actually work under the hood?" I asked. Not as a quiz — genuinely curious. The look on his face wasn't embarrassment. It was just honest: "Not really, no." I thought about it. Neither did I — not really. I knew the rules. I'd followed them for years. But why they existed? I'd accepted them as received wisdom and moved on. That's not unusual. Ask any React developer how hooks work internally and you'll get the same look. Not because developers are careless — because nobody explains it, and the o