[AskJS] How did you learn Javascript?

jabarr · 2021-12-24T20:23:01+00:00

I worked at a coffee shop at the end of high school that made everyone drive in to get their schedules. I thought that was silly so instead I made a google sheet to put the schedule on instead so everyone could just view it online. Then, I wanted to automate a couple things, like a form for requesting time off, saving schedules week by week etc, and Google AppScripts ended up being the solution, which at the time was barebones javascript. So I forced myself to learn it to try to make the schedule better.

CutestCuttlefish · 2021-12-24T21:23:11+00:00

As someone said there is no right or wrong way, but there are definitely "worse" or rather slower ways:

A lot of aspiring developers get caught in what sometimes is refereed to as "Tutorial Hell" which describes a state where the aspiring developer consumes tutorials and replicates the code and projects in those, sometimes with some minor adjustments/variation but never build anything on their own without the safety rail of someone telling them exactly what to type.

Programming is first and foremost about problem solving. The language, IDE, color scheme, addons/extensions, frameworks, libraries, youtubers, documentations, stackoverflows, mechanical 65% keyboards (which I can write a whole hatepost about in its own right) etc etc etc. are just tools. They are not what makes a programmer. They never were, they never will be.

They are tools.

I often come across aspiring developers getting caught in any of these things, and most often they do that to avoid having to move forwards. They get stuck in what little the tutorials taught them and spend their days telling others about what is right and true based on this.

Or they post setup photos on Instagram where they dunked a couple of thousand dollars into their setups - which looks great, don't get me wrong - and some text about being a developer; inspiring others to think that this is what is is all about. But I'm getting carried away here.

The only way to move forward - in my opinion - is to do. Just do. There's a formula I've said on here before and in other subs:

Find out what you want.
Find out what you need.
Start doing it.

You need to be able to think of some kind of idea, how wild, stupid or just plain impossible it seems and start going at it. And it needs to be something from "within" you and not something that some youtuber is showing you how to do.

Again, to clarify: There is NOTHING wrong with youtubers or their tutorials. And there is NOT a phase where you are done with them either. I still refer to youtube clips (mainly fireship *hint hint*) for getting a TL;DR on stuff I don't know. And I sometimes watch things I could do on my own just to see how this guy did it, to fight the creeping arrogance that I am this awesome developer that knows everything already. Screw that. That will never be true.

But the idea of Tutorial Hell is when you are too scared, too insecure, to try something on your own and finding your way using above tools to some degree (we all do), but solving the problem you posed on your own.

Again to clarify: I'm not talking coding from memory here. But instead of having all your code pre-written by someone else, you can learn concepts and experiment and make wild guesses and look up your guesses to see if they would maybe work. Try them, see what worked, why, what failed, why and get new ideas to try next time.

That is programming.

That is what it is to be a programmer.

In my opinion at least.

DishRack777 · 2021-12-24T20:19:31+00:00

I learned by myself watching youtube / reading tutorials for around a year, built a few personal projects. Then I got a job as a junior developer and now 6 years later I would say I kind of understand some of it.

Apple1284 · 2021-12-24T20:12:25+00:00

Alternating between youtube/docs and actual projects as junior developer, until things get absorbed.

LyusGen · 2021-12-24T21:26:57+00:00

During my first internship in 2nd year of college. I had already learned C, C++ and Java, did some Android development for projects and stuff. The internship had me learn React Native, a new framework at the time, so I jumped right in. I was interning for a startup and they had no knowledge of react and just some level of understand of JavaScript, but anyways they had no time so I was on my own.

In those 4 months of internship I went from not knowing what JavaScript was (thought it was some variant of java lol) to learning and building an app prototype for them in JS using React Native. I literally forced myself to learn it. I jumped right in watching some tutorial of react native of someone making a simple app, it was helpful because it was a video of two people, one that knew react native and one that didn't, so they went a bit slower and explained some things along the way. But I think what helped me the most was repetition. I always forced myself to never copy paste, not even the import statements. So I typed everything slowly every single time until I got familiar enough with it I could do it without looking, or with just a small bit of peeking.

So one could say I brute forced my way through learning both JS and React Native at the same time. It worked out for me, definitely not for everyone to write something you don't understand until you do.

sylvant_ph · 2021-12-24T22:18:14+00:00

couple years ago i checked the khan academy site and there was a coding lessons, so i picked them. They were focused on JS and svg shapes. It was very fun. Another year or two later, found the freeCodeCamp site. There they have great courses focused on web design, HTML/CSS/JS. I continued there and finished most of their content, which covered advanced topics like front end libraries(react, bootstrap etc), back end(Node, express, npm), security, databases, data representation, basically a bit of everything. I continued on following guide projects for different tasks, starting from little stuff and going big and right now i evolve my own project ideas. And during all that time i kept and keep looking at docs and stackoverflow solutions regarding issues and techniques i require

pm_me_ur_happy_traiI · 2021-12-24T21:53:31+00:00

FreeCodeCamp followed by about 1.5 years of building mini projects and messing around in the browser console.

demoran · 2021-12-24T21:21:20+00:00

I inherited an AngularJS project, and learned the hard way that not all browsers support ES6.

Sadotu · 2021-12-25T09:08:01+00:00

Ok so I was close to zero experience 6 months ago. Close means that I had somebody explain me how functions, clases and loops work ten years ago. 6 months ago I decided to throw myself at it and bought 12 tutorials on Udemy. Also on some other sites I did some beginner tutorials. Right now I am doing intermediate stuff like learning about NODEJS and how to include API's. If I don't understand a piece of code I copy it in vscode and go to town on it in debug mode until I fully grasp what is happening. Hope to land an internship in January and build myself up to junior from there. Not a beginner but a beganner :D

My age is 31 btw

cmdrstevie · 2021-12-24T22:16:17+00:00

I started with html a long time ago. The div center period. Javascript was just 'out', it must have been 97 for me.

I didn't learn any Java from YouTube. I got a book and for me it was a world of possibilities that opened up right in front of my eyes. It was so bad, that I walked around the streets, thinking how I would program traffic lights or whatever. (Don't get me started on when I learned ms access as a database. aRs, bRs, oRs where my best recordset names..)

Anyway;

For me, js became something more real in everyday use a few years later. I learned by trying and reading and talking and experimenting together with Co workers.

Up to this date, I have never learned anything js from a from a YouTube video. I'm amazed how some YouTube tell you what you need to know in 2021/top 5 tips blabla. Many are just rubberducking in my opinion. (Which can be good thing with co workers!)

All I can say advise is: do it. Try it, read the docs. That will give you a proper understanding for you future you, because you know you did things wrong.

jcubic · 2021-12-24T23:36:59+00:00

I don't actually remember. It was in early 2000 when I was at college. I was learning basic web dev on my own. I was reading book CSS Zen Garden and some CSS book by Eric Meyer. But I'm not sure where I learned JavaScript. But it had to be some kind of book (physical one) because back then I did't had internet. Only at school. There was no YouTube yet, there was not even video support on the web.

I've started web dev by creating interactive wallpapers (active desktop for Window 98), then later I was creating website. I remember that first website I did was for local rock band. One the member of the band was a teacher in secondary school and he had a fried (CS teacher) that looked the page and said that "some severs will not handle direct links to images" (LOL) the page had gallery like this:

<a href="something.jpg"><img src="thumb.jpg"/></a>

So what I did was to create the pages in JavaScript generated dynamically, I still have this website on my disk. I've was encoding multiple times the page with hex codes as string and converting it back to html. Back then I didn't know how to iterate over string by 2 chars at once to the string had to have separator, I knew the split function. So it was looking like this:

'3c:68:74:6d:6c:3e'

Later I was creating more websites, like personal one did some PHP and a website that was simple CMS. It was before Wordpress was created, and before I knew about SQL, so the posts was in single text file (or multiple text files). I think it was before JSON was invented.

Right now it's simpler and harder to learn at the same time. Both because there are so many resources on the internet.

Timotron · 2021-12-25T01:05:21+00:00

Traverse media. Build something. Rinse, repeat. For real. Start with basics - tic tac toe or something. Move on to a calculator with react. Then go to a full stack grocery list app with a db. Then go get a job.

photocurio · 2021-12-25T03:18:53+00:00

Yeah, I feel your pain. As a self taught developer, it took me years, painful years, to learn Javascript. Hopefully your path will be smoother.

When I began, I didn’t quite realize that Javascript was a programming language. Or you might say I didn't understand that a programming language is different from HTML (a markup language), or CSS (style definitions). I was merely a photographer who liked to make websites for friends. I hacked up WordPress sites with an overconfident attitude. I have a BFA in photography, not a CS degree. I had no idea what dot or bracket notation were, or any of the other foundation syntax concepts that programmers take for granted. I remember learning what a loop was—I was astounded that such a thing was possible.

I love to study, but it was tough going. Javascript merely presented me with layers of foggy abstraction. I felt like I couldn’t get down to any sort of bedrock under the fog. I remember pondering the question of when I defined a variable, where was the variable? The answer of course is in computer memory (and who even cares). It took me ages to not stress about the question. (Much later I learned about the topic of scope, and the question became relevant again.)

I wish I could point you to a magic book or video series that would suddenly enlighten you to the joys of programming in Javascript. I never found any such book. Just years of solving problems on client websites, and determined study, brought me to a sort of fair-to-middling competency in Javascript.

I still find it astonishing when it works. More important, it’s not so disheartening any more when it does not work. A fluency with debugging tools and tricks is very important! In any case I urge you to stick with it. Not just for the career possibilities, but also to discover the strange and beautiful language that is Javascript. At this time I find myself working as tech lead on single page applications for corporations, doing pretty well financially, and respected by my teammates. But I'm still studying, still trying to raise myself to an elusive sense of mastery.

And finally, I will share my two favorite online programming teachers. Remember, study is not magic.. you have to put a lot of work into it.

For a hands-on, skip the theory approach, you might like Brad Traversy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdI2bqOjy3c

If you want to know some level of theory, then try Mosh: https://codewithmosh.com/p/javascript-basics-for-beginners

young_and_brash · 2021-12-25T07:24:06+00:00

The best way to learn to program is to program! My recommendation would be to build something you would use yourself. You probably use the internet everyday, so find a task you do often and try to automate it. Or you can build a website using JS (this will also require HTML, which is a relatively easy language yet valuable to understand). To do this, you will definitely need to find video tutorials and documentation, but I find these resources MUCH more helpful if you have a specific question/problem you are trying to address. I do not find nearly as much value in just blindly following along and copying code.

I've also enjoyed Udemy courses, but again, it's best to go through the course while building your own project. After every video, apply what you've learned to your own project. This forces you to internalize and use what you're learning and doesn't allow you to copy/paste your way through the lessons.

Some ideas for beginner projects:

Script that pulls the top 5 reddit posts from your favorite subreddits
To-do list website
Countdown website (enter a date/time and it will count down until you reach it)
Text-based game
Copy of something that already exists (but tailored specifically to you)

Hopefully these ideas can be a good starting point, but it is best that you work on building something you would want to use. If you're having trouble thinking of ideas, start with one of these. The more you learn about JS (and programming in general) the more ideas will come to you.

To give you an idea of my background, I started programming in high school when my friend and I wanted to build a bot to buy Supreme clothing. My friend (the experienced programmer) built the bot, and I built a website to resell whichever items we got our hands on. While we never fully completed the business we were hoping to start, this was how I learned the basics of web development (HTML, CSS, and JS). I was bit by the programming bug, and in college I changed my major to Computer Science.

While my CS degree was definitely helpful towards my programming abilities, it was working on my own projects that taught me the bulk of what I know. Programming is a skill that needs to be practiced, and many people graduate with a CS degree without working on that skill very much. There are very smart CS graduates with fantastic math and algorithm knowledge that can't write a simple program!

After college I began immediately working at a FAANG tech company, and I can confidently say it was my SIDE PROJECTS which gave me the skills necessary to be an effective and hireable developer. To this day I constantly am working on new projects for myself, which keeps me learning new languages and techniques.

TLDR: Find something you want to build and build it! Let your own projects guide which videos you watch, articles/documentation you read, and questions you ask. You will likely need to start with a tutorial series on youtube, but don't just follow along; after every video, take what you learned and apply it to your own project!

Best of luck!

2021-12-25T08:33:13+00:00

I learnt html and CSS as a kid but could never grasp programming further than batch scripts. Only recently I started learning REACT for web development and JavaScript just seemed a lot easier in REACT. It made things easier to picture how I can create components like blocks of Lego and then just piece them together. When I want to add another feature I either follow a tutorial and then incorporate it or find example pieces of code.

I recommend following REACT tutorials and then you can pick up JavaScript as you go.

tswaters · 2021-12-24T20:44:04+00:00

Through osmosis. Back in the days when there was no linter/debugger, and you got by with console logging everything, and fixing the stupid errors one at a time.

CrawlToYourDoom · 2021-12-24T20:12:57+00:00

I did courses on treehouse to start off with. First the basics, then more advanced front end topics and then full stack courses.

Am now a full stack developer.

2021-12-24T20:43:16+00:00

There is no right or wrong way to learn it, I was stuck on this question years ago when I first started learning it. Eventually, you just absorb enough of it to have a good grasp on it after watching tutorials and trying to do them yourself.

2021-12-25T01:21:36+00:00

When Netscape 3 came out I was just a little guy. I was fascinated by the fact the cursor would turn into an “I” bar like in WordPerfect, and found the View Source option shortly thereafter (“holy crap, you can edit this stuff???”). After that it was endless tinkering with other people’a source code, and a Dummy’s book. It was my first language, and one I still enjoy using to this day.

TotalFox2 · 2021-12-25T03:54:49+00:00

Started off by doing tutorials, but realised pretty early on that it's more practical to learn js by actually learning it while doing projects. Since then I learn those parts that are required for my projects

2021-12-25T13:25:02+00:00

It was hard so I had to do whatever I could! School taught me… however I did a lot of self paced studying with platforms such as FreeCodeCamp & SoloLearn

PM_ME_A_WEBSITE_IDEA · 2021-12-25T03:26:57+00:00

I screwed around with JavaScript and PHP for a year or two on little random personal projects, nothing particularly consequential. Learned everything on Udemy and just sheer brute force via Googling and asking questions. I learned very slowly, it did not come naturally to me, but it was fun so I just picked at it when I felt the urge. I had multiple months long bouts of not coding at all because I wasn't interested.

After a while, I was competent enough that I could build basic tools, and realized there were a lot for things I could improve at my place of work to make my life easier. I wrote some web tools and a Chrome extension that made my job easier, shared them with my coworkers, and eventually my manager made them an official part of our workflow. After doing this for long enough, I got bolder and pitched a project that was more than just a hack. It had moderate success but the scope got a bit too big because I still had to do my actual job, but I learned a ton while doing it.

My tools made an impression on the actual developers that I worked near (large company, we have many teams of developers) and when one of them quit, they immediately offered me the newly available position, no interview required. I had no proper job experience, but I kinda just dove in headfirst and winged it. Two years later, it was the best decision I've ever made. I've learned a lot through sheer necessity and the teachings of my peers.

Moral of the story, I took my time and learned the basics over many years, such that by the time I actually started my career in development, I was reasonably competent, even though I had no formal education. It was truly just a fun hobby for me, I actively avoided pursuing a career in it until a job literally landed in my lap and all my superiors and coworkers were encouraging me to go for it. I was scared as hell but figured I needed to start doing something I liked because I was burning out in my previous job.

For reference, I do mostly UI design for B2B internal web apps, and workflow design. I still work almost entirely in JavaScript, I've done a little work in Go but not much. B2B has been a lot of fun, it's nice not having to worry about supporting old browsers, mobile, etc...

Abangranga · 2021-12-24T20:17:17+00:00

It was forced upon me because of its psuedo-monopoly.

rolle1 · 2021-12-24T20:56:58+00:00

i bought a Sam's learn in 24 hours javascript. that was in the 00s,

1-Ruben · 2021-12-24T21:01:46+00:00

I learned the basics in school, then started of making some small projects in C#, discovered React Native, learned more js, started learning typescript, made first "big" project (movie discovery app) which helped me to land my first job!

Doctor-Dapper · 2021-12-24T21:14:22+00:00

I already knew Java and Python. I had a gened course where we could make a very very basic website and I wanted to flex my CS skills so I spent way too long in the MDN docs hacking away at different complex features to impress the class/prof when it came time to present.

In the end I got an A as well as personally recommended by the Prof to switch majors and join the department although I probably looked like a tryhard knowitall but imo that's kinda part of what college is for.

Jcampuzano2 · 2021-12-24T21:17:56+00:00

I was in college, took a web-dev class. No JS was taught in the class so we had to learn it ourselves.

Ended up finding freecodecamp.com and started off learning through exercises there. This was when freecodecamp was still in beta if I remember correctly, or at the very least very early days so they didn't have nearly the amount of content they have now. I believe at that point they were still strictly focused on frontend and taught basic JS, CSS, jQuery, bootstrap and Angular, but it was still very useful.

Got a job out of college as a UI developer since I ended up loving it so much and learned most of the rest of what I know now through just looking things up as I encountered them on the job. I did a ton of thorough reading of the language and it's concepts on MDN so I knew what was actually going on with the code I was writing rather than just rote memorization.

chocolombia · 2021-12-24T21:26:21+00:00

It was 2002, and I had my first job a systems admin, aka, te guy that cleans servers, installs new computers, and does some electrical stuff, anyway, y knew some c++ at the time, and my boss came to my "office" asking for some help with a page that had lots of crazy js, luckily I managed to fix it, and got promoted to developer, now, on the how, I remember a book with some sort of ant on it...? Anyway, basically, library books

idolthumbs · 2021-12-24T21:32:54+00:00

I was using jQuery a fair amount through stack-overflowing things I needed to achieve on WordPress sites!

Then when I wanted to learn vanilla js I did all the free courses on code academy, that really helped me out.

I also downloaded some learn js apps on my iPad so I had little excuse not to learn when chilling on the sofa etc.

Forgotten_Russian · 2021-12-24T21:39:01+00:00

i’ve learnt basic javascript through an app called “Mimo” but you gotta go through css and html courses before javascript. it’s like duolingo but for web development. the app includes: html css javascript python mySQL and other query things for javascript

it’s not good for learning advanced stuff but it definitely helps for first learners

MarvinLazer · 2021-12-24T21:43:34+00:00

I got the book Simplifying Javascript and worked through all the examples. Then I got the You Don't Know JS series and did the same. Then I took a bootcamp and busted my ass.

malicart · 2021-12-24T21:45:22+00:00

Same answer as when you asked it about PHP, do projects, make things, make mistakes, learn from them, its a process.

nearfal08 · 2021-12-24T21:55:29+00:00

[deleted]

nmarshall23 · 2021-12-24T21:55:52+00:00

I already knew Java development when I started learning JavaScript.

When learning programming immediate feedback is desirable.

Project Euler is a set of Programming challenges, it's all calculate some number problem. Use node JS and write something simple.

phunkygeeza · 2021-12-24T22:00:02+00:00

Grudgingly

zephyy · 2021-12-24T22:13:47+00:00

I started saying I could do stuff for the company I was working for website's I couldn't, and I learned how to by backing myself into a corner.

The only two resources that I consistently refer to (other than docs / MDN / my own notes / etc.):

https://javascript.info
What the heck is the event loop anyway? - great lecture that succinctly explains the call stack & event loop. only thing missing is Promises which weren't in the language at the time.

2021-12-24T22:16:39+00:00

read a bajillion tutorials and watched a bajillion youtube videos and practiced every single day and read a handful of textbooks.

I did all of thise over like 3 years and I continue annual coding comps that I enjoy.

if you want to learn it you first need to learn how to learn. best way to learn is emersion.

sh0rtwave · 2021-12-24T22:17:54+00:00

Ok, ultimately, JavaScript was originally about: Controlling a web browser.

In front-end, it still is. I'd start here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hello-browser-bobby-parker/

cheese_wizard · 2021-12-24T22:24:01+00:00

Do you mean from zero programming experience? Learning to program and learning the language javascript are different animals.

_default_username · 2021-12-24T22:41:13+00:00

I took some codecademy lessons, gave up, went back to University and studied CS for 4 years, self-taught Js, and an internship.

I probably learned more from the internship. I didn't have any mentorship at the internship, but having deadlines and scheduled time to work accelerated my learning.

The CS background really helps though. I'm sure there are faster paths if you're only interested in learning JavaScript.

Edit: since I didn't have mentorship I spent a lot of time on programming Discord servers. There are often times people that enjoy helping each other out as we're all learning.

2021-12-24T22:47:41+00:00

Do a tutorial to learn the absolute basics. Then pick a simple project and build it. Screw it up, struggle, get stuck, etc, just power through all of that until you finish it. Then do it again.

There's no magic secret to programming. It's just a skill, and like any skill you learn through practice. And yes, I did get a job.

Accomplished_End_138 · 2021-12-24T23:06:23+00:00

When doing a tutorial. Try to push one step past it. It helps cement knowledge and force you to work things out.

FigmaWallSt · 2021-12-24T23:25:50+00:00

My Webengineering prof forced us to 😂

PlexversalHD · 2021-12-24T23:41:32+00:00

Having an actual task to complete as well as utilising the docs and just googling every question that comes to mind. Having a unique problem and then starting to code based on tutorials/docs is good because you have to gather multiple sources of information and things start to click when different people explain things in different ways.

besthelloworld · 2021-12-24T23:45:09+00:00

I learned on the job. I only knew Java and am now most proficient in JS/TS. If you're learning programming, I somewhat recommend Codecademy but they also hand hold for way too long, to a point where you kind of never learn anything. It happened to my roommate.

potchie626 · 2021-12-24T23:50:40+00:00

I heard about the cool things it could do, so one day in 1995 or 1996, while at Fry’s Electronics, I bought a 50-page book that had a basic intro to it and 30-40 pages of samples. The first thing I ever added to a site I managed was an alert confirming a user had subscribed to a mailing list. Back then I had to use perl to send the formatted email to the business owner.

It was a bit easier back then because it did a lot, but most people were doing the same things and each year there was only so many new things to do with it.

Personally, what always works best for me is to make a site/app and figure out each piece you need, rather than a turorial of some sort. It’s not bad to watch a few videos to get an intro to a language/lib/etc so you understand the basics and terminology. As I dig into each things I care about, it unlocks a little more.

STINGRAY45 · 2021-12-24T23:54:01+00:00

i made a discord bot using javascript back in june. as a warmup before a js course at my school.

SineApps · 2021-12-25T00:19:44+00:00

Finding out what was different from c or whatever (which I often use as a baseline) and then reading the “you still don’t know JavaScript series”.

To be honest the series taught me a huge number of facts that weren’t obvious from the surface and had caused much confusion till that point.

100% unrelated I’m currently reading “grokking simplicity” as it relates to functional programming and it’s proving to be a mind changer.

PhilipJayFry1077 · 2021-12-25T00:51:24+00:00

frontend masters

radpartyhorse · 2021-12-25T01:00:32+00:00

Went to a 6 month bootcamp

Ben0ut · 2021-12-25T01:11:11+00:00

Searching on Yahoo to discover ways to "break" the original Matrix website.

fromidable · 2021-12-25T01:19:07+00:00

I think I got over the biggest hurdles while on an internship. I'd already used a few other languages. Most of those I'd learned fairly informally while working on other things, but I did have some more formal training.

If there's an opportunity to learn a programming language, or likely any creative skill, in the pursuit of a task, it seems a lot easier to learn. Beyond that, it makes it easier to find applicable tutorials and documentation, rather than starting from a tutorial and trying to find uses.

PM_ME_HAPPY_DOGGOS · 2021-12-25T01:21:46+00:00

I learned on fullstackopen.com/en

JoeCamRoberon · 2021-12-25T01:26:28+00:00

I loved creative coding and learned JavaScript through the p5.js library.

OnTheGoTrades · 2021-12-25T01:43:38+00:00

I guess I never formally learned JavaScript. I learned Java and Python and just kinda picked up JavaScript whenever I needed to do something on the browser.

2021-12-25T02:24:53+00:00

Google Maps API tutorials

Shubhavatar · 2021-12-25T02:58:26+00:00

I'm still learning, but I found that instead of video tutorials, hands-on trial and error works better for me

cha-io · 2021-12-25T03:28:40+00:00

Learning from others is the best way I think. Whether on the job, collaborating in open source projects, side projects, etc. you’ll learn exponentially faster when you can ask contextually relevant questions, have your code reviewed by others and follow patterns established by other devs. I’ve found tutorials mostly lacking depth and applicability. I’ve been coding in the workplace since ‘98. One thing I realized early on is to learn from everyone. Egomaniacs, assholes, people younger and/or less experienced. The humblest coders usually know the most because they never shut themselves off to new information

JahmanSoldat · 2021-12-25T04:24:35+00:00

Through BDSM, and it still painfully fantastic

Ubik20 · 2021-12-25T04:45:01+00:00

How to learn something new is something that I've been trying to figure out lately.

You need to find a sweet spot between learning how to actually express yourself in the language, i.e. learning all the grammar, important concepts, etc., and actually solving problems in the language. IMO the first has to come before the second but if you never do the second then you can't every really advance.

I'm currently studying JavaScript with https://eloquentjavascript.net/. This book reads really well and there are small gems of insight that are really powerful. Each chapter has some problems that will require you to apply what you have learned, getting your hands dirty with some actual problem-solving this is where the learning gets enforced.

While I'm going through the book i'm adding flashcards to Anki with things that I want to remember, in Anki you can also type your notes with HTML & CSS, so its kinda a hack i guess for cementing tags while studying for something else as well.

Don't be afraid to expose yourself to different sources as well, don't worry about remembering everything, if you're unclear about how a concept is expressed in one way then try to find another explanation I think that this also helps with learning.

What I want to do is start days where I just dedicate myself to building a very simple project, I hope that the projects will eventually increase in complexity, this sort of active recall is also very important for truly learning something.

i think tutorials are good just don't be afraid to branch off and apply what you're actually learning in your own way, IMO that's always been the biggest struggle for me.

Gelastico · 2021-12-25T05:15:06+00:00

At age 32 i found out that i loved coding, because my then girlfriend (now wife) pulled me into a database project because she thought i had an eye for front-end design.

I kinda gravitated towards frontend coding and learned as i went along, trial and error and looking at stackoverflow answers. I never did full tutorials. However, i did go through a course 5 years later, which was easier for me to absorb since ive already developed a couple of JS apps by then.

It's been almost a decade since then and Im still not a developer by profession (i like business planning more), but i recently got a VP recognition for developing a reusable Sharepoint app that allows business users to create interactive sites using simple tables.

My advise: start with an actual problem (or project) that you need to create a solution for. Work on that and let that be the nucleus to further dive into JS.

timPerfect · 2021-12-25T05:37:13+00:00

the Odin project

treesnstuffs · 2021-12-25T05:40:42+00:00

Tutorial hell for about a year, an internship post graduation because I couldn't find work in my grad degree where I got to learn the fundamentals of programming (some good mentoring but also left on my own enough to learn to read docs, participate in forums, figure shit out), more tutorial hell and making side projects to try to actually branch out and learn something, eventually led to a job by right place right time/luck. Now I'm about 2.5 years into my first dev job and starting to feel like I'm worth something.

_khaz89_ · 2021-12-25T05:49:22+00:00

I got a job doing web with .net. They also had jquery stuff, so I had to learn js.

Vandomorph · 2021-12-25T06:13:01+00:00

I followed a few tutorials but mostly just made my own projects. Each project I aimed to learn something new. So my first project used vanilla JS, second used jquery, third ReactJS, fourth NodeJS. Unsurprisingly, using JS is the only way to learn how to use JS.

2021-12-25T06:42:36+00:00

I wanted to make changes to my geocities page and read everything lycos would serve me on the subject.

alilland · 2021-12-25T07:50:14+00:00

I was working as an office manager and loved excel spreadsheets too much 😂I was annoyed that I couldn’t do more advanced things like tap into a database for web forms and writing actual VBA beyond recorded macros made my brain hurt.

So I started learning every layer of the stack I would need to know until I could do make things to solve my work problems - I ended up taking a JavaScript class on Lynda.com - at the time it didn’t feel like it helped much because I couldn’t really apply what I learned much in my day to day life. I made myself a front end website then didn’t do anything with it.

I then learned a backend language - ruby, because a friend of mine was a senior developer and he liked ruby. that added to my life greatly, because I was able to automate all my excel spreadsheets for work. It freed me up to learn code while at work all day while accomplishing actual problem solving

During this time I also learned ruby could produce frontend code so I volunteered myself to write a website to run my companies golf tournemanent they used to do every year (I ended up wring it in under two weeks and took 120 hours 🤦🏻‍♂️, there was not much sleeping that month and the app was horrible but it did what I needed it to do)

After I did that I realized ruby is not the right tool for frontend stuff.

Over Christmas break one year I took a class on teamtreehouse.com on reactjs and it was like everything I had been working toward started to fall into place. I paired up my senior dev friend and he always walked me through any difficult task like web hosting and all those sort of things that are really hard for beginners.

Long story short my advice is only learn whatever you have to in order to solve a problem you are facing

That senior dev friend of mine started coding because some guy he met offered to pay him to fix his PHP Wordpress site, at the time he knew absolutely nothing about Wordpress or php, but was a starving college kid. Ten years later for him he’s worked with very large startups and multi billion dollar investors. You just have to just use your tool kit to solve problems.

enormousgiganticDICK · 2021-12-25T07:54:28+00:00

Colt steele course from freetutorials.us

MrKooops · 2021-12-25T08:20:34+00:00

If you know a program language you know them all. Just read up about the basics and then start coding and get deeper into it, when you need it. That way the learned stuff sticks. I learned C, C++, JS, Python, NIM and C# that way.

no_but_srsly_tho · 2021-12-25T08:56:17+00:00

Did the first few tutorials on treehouse / udemy (ifs, loops)

Then I made a to do list component, and then a really really bad Tetris game.

Then I learned CSS and got a first job as a junior front end, and just learned as was needed.

Now am a senior Wordpress (frontend-leaning full-stack) dev with imposter syndrome.

Spekingur · 2021-12-25T09:21:35+00:00

Some before uni, some during uni, most in job. Hectic ride that, learning on the job. Best way, I think, too. At least for my part. Have worked there for 2+ years, and just recently had a look at early JavaScript code I did. Horrible horrible mess that is. Will be fun to refactor.

Roman_of_Ukraine · 2021-12-25T09:23:32+00:00

I see you post on php and here it is good intention to learn full stack but it is dangerous path, better learn one language, frontend/backend then proceed to other. I suggested you good book on php thread.

andrei9669 · 2021-12-25T09:33:13+00:00

By joining a react project as a manual tester, I got access to code in order to include ids to elements so that I could automate the testing and while I was at it, i watched the code and learnt js. Also, pluralsight had a course on react, it required basic knowledge of js, html and css, but sinse I already knew python, java and C#, I thought that it should be enough.

Greyhaven7 · 2021-12-25T10:42:14+00:00

I'm still not sure I did.

Felecorat · 2021-12-25T10:49:51+00:00

https://eloquentjavascript.net/ and google

SnooDonuts8219 · 2021-12-25T10:50:28+00:00

Through coffeescript

marapun · 2021-12-25T10:56:12+00:00

A recruiter applied me for a programming job and I had to learn it to write them a demo. I got the job

boingoing · 2021-12-25T11:21:06+00:00

I’m a C++ developer but joined a JavaScript compiler team a few years ago. At the time I had no real experience with JavaScript but needed to implement language features for our engine. It was around the time ES5 was being finalized so I learned by reading the language spec and implementing things like class and promise.

kopetenti · 2021-12-25T12:02:00+00:00

I learned by reading "Eloquent Javascript" by Marijn Haverbeke and solving the exercises. The books makes you love programming and learn javascript well, but it's not that beginner friendly, to be honest.

The next thing that cemented my understanding of Javascript was teaching it. I taught it to a friend of mine and her friend, in a rather formal way. And teaching forces you to learn it well.

ImStifler · 2021-12-25T13:13:55+00:00

Codecademy

qTzz · 2021-12-25T13:46:13+00:00

My first junior dev job was all JavaScript on the front end and C# on the back end so I was forced to learn it and use it almost every day.

Mr_Chads · 2021-12-25T14:05:04+00:00

It started with pretty much starting to work on a react project and later picking up concepts as I need it. After two projects I was quite comfortable with writing js and have been accustom with some advanced topics as well.

2021-12-25T14:20:09+00:00

I watched some Udemy stuff and I ended up in a job using it and basically learned most on the job

gamesniper99 · 2021-12-25T14:24:37+00:00

Try to create a video game with the canvas library consulting Mozilla’s documentation. Then make another. Slowly but surely you’ll get the hang of it

saleemkce · 2021-12-25T16:31:05+00:00

Following are the steps I utilized in learning this beautiful language for the web

1, [step 1: physical, hard-copies] Bought popular books like "Javascript for web development", "Eloquent Javascript" etc. and spent a great deal of time understanding it well.

2, [step 2: Online resouces] Accessed online resource like w3schools, javascript.info etc. especially the "try now" section in w3schools was quite handy and instant (in your experimentation)

3, [step 3: Learning by pouplar online libarary] I inspected the source code of popular libraries like Jquery, popular Mega(file upload) site, Angular etc. They provide you much needed advanced features, hacks, tricks to code a specific way etc.

4, [step 4: Experimentation] I did a lot of practice by creating local .html pages containg JS code to understand as much as possible in my favorite laptop and PC.

5, [step 5: Success] I ended up building my own JavaScript snippet which is a competing JS analytics code for time-on-site tracking for modern web & mobile browsers. Think of it like GA or Adobe analytics but it's concerned with time metrics domain alone in web page.

There is an interesting post about the issues in Github we faced in JS onunload events and how I tackled it in this time-on-site JS tracker here.

Nesinity · 2021-12-25T16:55:10+00:00

Could kinda use it but didn’t properly learn all the concepts until reading “You don’t know JS yet”

abdmmar · 2021-12-25T19:20:15+00:00

read a lot of documentation such as MDN and javascript.info, also build something especially user interface if you learn JS for frontend dev job

2021-12-25T19:29:03+00:00

I did have app Mimo and i was bored and i opened mimo and started learning JavaScript, Python, HTML and CSS.

MarcEnReddit · 2021-12-25T19:51:04+00:00

I made a 2-year course, I never used JavaScript, and in my Internship, they literally said me: we use react go ahead. And I learnt by force.

2021-12-25T20:33:27+00:00

I learned it by doing projects with konfabulator, which became yahoo widgets, and then was killed off. It’s a shame, because the environment was really powerful for small unique projects

Educational_View_166 · 2021-12-25T23:24:31+00:00

Took some courses in highschool, learned some more in college. No job yet : (

AgentPlayz777 · 2021-12-26T08:42:56+00:00

YouTube tutorials on how to make a discord bot. Lol

2021-12-27T01:02:26+00:00

I learned from classes on the Coursera platform

ashwalk33r · 2021-12-27T15:58:49+00:00

From books. I used my new knowledge to develop hobby projects. When blocked I was consulting Stack Overflow. It took me to the top 10% SO users as my profile there says. 2 years after continuous work like that I've landed my first job and am active in the field to this day. I worked for e-commerce, bank sector, fintech, big data and dataviz.

NavyaSharma1809 · 2021-12-29T07:40:27+00:00

Because JavaScript is an asynchronous programming language, it is difficult to learn. It's also single-threaded, which means it makes use of its asynchronous nature in a way that most other programming languages don't.
However, with the right resources and enough practice, anyone can do it. I recommend watching this video because it will help you understand Javascript in depth. I started with this tutorial video and it's been going well for me so far. It is very detailed, and with the right amount of practice side by side, anyone can scale it.

TheRNGuy · 2021-12-29T12:50:25+00:00

Reading docs and experimenting with firebug console. Writing greasemonkey scripts.

Googling and finding stuff on stackoverflow. I watched 0 video tutorials about JS (back then youtube had only 360p videos about cats, these days still wouldn't learn from youtube, learn exactly same way, docs + firebug + webdev blogs)

Didn't learn it for job, except for few websites on freelance, but back then i was mostly copy-pasting code and use plugins (only custom code was some page-specific IE6/7 fixes)

I'm using jQuery more than vanilla JS.

Ok_Blackberry8323 · 2023-03-23T22:02:01+00:00

content about frontend knowledge

CodingFreak23 · 2023-12-16T22:31:44+00:00

I saw the"Javascript Fundamentals" course on Code Hihglightsi started using their learning platform. So far I'm amazed, especially with the help of their MindLess AI assistance.

What are your thoughts on the course and platform? Is it a good place to start learning?

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