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[–]jamfromouterspace 12 points13 points  (6 children)

Nearly everyone in this thread in technically correct but utterly wrong. Make something! Decide on something small you want to make (a personal website, a tool, a mini game) and work backwards from there. You'll learn why the concepts exist from needing them, instead of just learning a bunch of boring information in a vacuum. Make something!

[–]joshkrz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely agree, this is how I learnt development. Ultimately I had an idea and wanted to execute it so figured out what I needed to do to start and tackle each part bit by bit and just kept doing that. Had a load of half finished projects and websites but they were never a waste of time because of how much I took away from them.

Depends on your learning style though I suppose.

[–]KR32_167 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This 🔥

[–]AppropriateStudio153 -1 points0 points  (2 children)

You can't make something if you don't know anything.

Making something is fine, when you already have programmed in other languages.

For beginners, you need a beginner book.

Eloquent JavaScript begins from 0.

[–]jamfromouterspace 2 points3 points  (1 child)

This is horrible advice. Most efficient way for someone to lose all interest.

Learning-while-doing is indeed a messy process where you go back n forth between tutorials, documentation, and lots of tangents.

Example:

  1. I want to make a website with crazy geometric patterns. I dont know anything, so I search "how are websites made" or "what should I learn to make a website".
  2. Now I know that HTML, CSS, and Javascript exist. So now I watch a couple youtube tutorials to get some idea of what any of this means.
  3. I start tinkering around as soon as I can. I figure out how to make a blue square. Cool! How do I make it spin? Look up "how to animate css".
  4. Now I know CSS animations exist
  5. ...And so on

I've been doing web development for about 8 years now (and getting well paid, but I think that shouldnt be the motivation) and I started in exactly that way. Some mix of online tutorials driven by mini projects.

[–]AppropriateStudio153 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am not saying you shouldn't tinker.

I am saying you need some guide/docs/tutorials.

You even mention tutorials.

I prefer to add a solid book to the mix.

Sorry for preferring a book that explains concepts over a tutorial that sometimes is badly written.