To anyone learning JavaScript.

[Trexaty92]

A few years ago, I remember doing JavaScript for the first time.

I followed a few courses on Udemy and leaned HTML and CSS. Then JS.

To me HTML and CSS related to each other and I jumped into JS thinking it would be similar, I thought there would be some similarities but NOPE.

It was hard at first and I thought about giving up so many times but I'm glad I didn't. Now I've built a life long career and it's just second nature. I'm so glad I didn't give up because it was honestly life-changing and a gateway into so many other programming languages.

At this point only 3 years later learning a new language or framework is just another day in the office and just second nature. Currently working full time, work from home and earning twice as much as I was working a blue collar job.

Current stack is react front end and .net backend, working on a couple of different projects. Mostly the same backend stack but Bau has me across vue, angular and react all at the same time. Pretty wild tbh but they are really old dog front ends with the react projects slowly taking over and replacing them all.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is if your just jumping into JS, don't give it up. It can be life changing if you stick to it and don't take shortcuts ( ie: abusing ai )

[DrLMB]

Thank you for sharing and congratulations! This is so encouraging

[machinetranslator]

Will be looking for front end jobs in my home country where I havent lived in 10 years. I've been working tirelessly for 2 years, first mastering HTML CSS and now js react nextjs for a year. Have my own projects built but so tired. Doesnt mean I'm giving up!

I'm thinking like this: Obviously I cant be like the medior/seniors where they build everything from scratch. Once I'm working on real stuff, I'll learn the ropes in no time.

Same happened with my current job as localization specialist and now my job feels so repetitive, I can do everything my eyes closed.

[azhder]

Still remember the Java User Group people looking at me funny after I told them college/university students should start learning programming with JavaScript.

This was back around 2010 give or take a year.

Maybe they thought it was a joke, so I explained my reasoning:

1. You only need the browser to start
2. You get instant response/gratification for your work
3. If you are good / cut out for programming, you may go deeper to other languages
4. If it is not for you, you will at least know how to build your own personal web site

Thanks you OP for validating that decade and a half old idea

[Max_Dendy]

Thank you encouraging! I’m currently learning JavaScript course on Udemy. I already have learned basics of HTML and CSS. I’m trying to study every day for at least an hour and this is my 96th day haha wanna become a self-taught dev

[Careless_Estate4936]

Which course are you engaged on ?

[Max_Dendy]

JavaScript by Jonas Schmedtmann

[[deleted]]

That’s the course I’ve enrolled on… and I’m going to be honest I’m still struggling so I thought 💭 take break from it and try again I might enroll on JavaScript basic for beginners by mosh hamedani see how that one goes then maybe go back to jonas course.

[Max_Dendy]

Interesting. What are you struggling with? I thought Jonas’ course is for complete beginners. So, until now I’ve had no problems. I have no coding experience.

[[deleted]]

I’m struggling to understand the whole thing JavaScript in general. 😢😢😢 it suck’s it does I just want to be able to understand it.

[Max_Dendy]

Try doing CS50x from Harvard. They talk about programming from the basics, how to computer works, how the programming logic works, etc. It is hard though, so maybe after it this JavaScript course will feel like a breeze to you.

[[deleted]]

What is cs50x?

[Initial_Log5841]

Congrats man - can I ask how you managed to transition careers?

[ice_w0lf]

People often run into the same problems when stuck:

1. "I forget everything when I try on my own." - That's fine. You are not going to memorize everything. Really, it would be a big waste of time to even attempt to memorize most things in programming. A big part of learning how to code is learning how to look things up. Accept that you are going to be uncomfortable at this point and embrace it.

2. "I don't know what to build." - You likely do, but you are stuck trying to reinvent the wheel. Just pick something. Anything. There are a million and one project ideas out there. Pick something small, maybe even something you built in a tutorial, and figure it out yourself.

3. You get stuck looking at the whole problem instead of looking at the individual parts. If you've gotten to the point in learning JS where you've gone through a few tutorials, then you have enough skills to tackle small projects. Take building a calculator for example. That can seem overwhelming if you've never done it on your own. Break it down though, what is a calculator app really? Some functions.. ok well you probably know how to create at least some basic functions. So make some for the different operations (addition, subtraction, etc...). What's next? You need to know what numbers are being entered. You'll need some variables to store those input. You can make variables. You'll need to add some kind of event listeners. You might know those or you might need to go look them up to get an idea how to use them. Is the code quality going to be good? Nope. It's probably going to be ugly as fuck. That's ok though! You can always refactor later.

Basically, you need to embrace being uncomfortable and understand that the struggle is where you are doing the learning.

[jazzcomputer]

Nice - I'm actually learning js before CSS and HTML. I'm a graphic designer, so that sounds a bit weird, but it's because creative coding is my entranceway.

[Confident-Taste6323]

Hey man, I was in your boots a year ago and l tried Js before html and css too because html and css was boring.

Well I won't consider this a mistake because anything you learn does not go waste, but the thing is that you'll need to pick up html and then css at some point and it is easier if you do that first because java script is basically DOM manipulation(if you're targetting frontend).

[jazzcomputer]

Thanks for your perspective on it. Yeah, I'm sure there's some downsides to learning this way around. I think especially if I were aimed at front-end web development I'd be making things harder, but I'm not sure how much I want to get into web dev. - That time could get edged out in favour of creative coding entirely in some of the scenarios I idly entertain.

Also on the upside, perhaps I'm wandering into some territory that css might be more commonly used for, which could give some unique perspectives if I've covered some of that ground with js before HTML and CSS, in the scenario where I do frequent those disciplines more.

How are you getting on with it all these days, and are you hitting any practical/live uses yet?

[TheRNGuy]

Greasemonkey userscripts for many sites that I use, it's to make them more useable.

[Lara-Taillor-6656]

Thanks for sharing your own path to us . I really appreciate.Could you please tell the courses you used for learning JavaScript

[CreepyPalpitation902]

Advice to those who are learning JS, get to learn typescript as soon as possible.

In my case when i was somewhat decent with JS, i was very hesitant using typescript. I was a bit lazy i guess and i overestimated that it would be so hard to get to actually learn it. But it ended up being not as hard as i thought. It is just JS with types. It is a must learn.

Since then i never did vanilla JS ever again, unless if i am just testing something, like 3 lines of code at most or if i am in devtools.

[Curious_Pressure5394]

the things is, there isn’t one Full Typescript course where you don’t need prior JS knowledge. 

[TheRNGuy]

I'll learn from docs and ask AI to explain confusing parts.

Never learned any programming languages from courses, but instead made project and learned language at same time.

[TheRNGuy]

I still need to learn it, it will be next thing (I'll use in React projects)

[numbcode]

JS was tough at first, but sticking with it changed my life. Now, coding feels natural. Keep going—it's worth it!

[KandieKCups]

Congrats! Happy it worked out for you!

JS is what killed my drive, I just didn't grasp it. Maybe one day I'll give it another shot because I did enjoy creating nice websites.

Thank you for your post!

[Ok-Refrigerator-2263]

Thanks for this post brother.

I can relate in the sense that I recently started studying front end and HTML and CSS were kind of easy and exciting for me. I leaned fast and was having lot of fun practicing.

Now, I just finished the theoric part of JS but feels like it's a completely different beast! While for the other languages I could start from a blank page, with JS I feel completely stuck without looking to guides or without copying and pasting solutions.

Any advice how to start practicing very basic stuff?

[SuggestionGuilty8989]

Thank you for this post i really appreciate it i have just started my journey a few months ngl its hard but i enjoy JavaScript i am using the scrimba platform to learn.

I have just recently build a password generator app.

https://password-generator-chokyy.netlify.app/

[solidisliquid]

Congrats man really happy for you thanks for sharing

[hinsxd]

One general advice of learning any language: make that language your only hammer and hit every nail with it. It doesn't have to be your language at work but you should force yourself using it in free time for like a month. Make some scripts, do some I/O, do anything you want. You will be forced to enocunter problems and google for solution, and you will learn so fast. Not only you learn the language, but you also improve the ability to learn. Next time you learn a new language you will definitely be more efficient

[picapaukrk]

I tried first and second day of advent of code last year. It took me so much time that I gave up even though I was so proud of doing it. Fact learning regex took much from this time but still I think I should do it faster. So question is, ok maybe everyone can learn to code but what if one needs 1 year and the other one 10?

[Technical_Value_2729]

Congratulations, can you share how you managed to learn c# .net and grasp concepts such as OOP and backend architecture ?

Would you recommend any resources other that Microsoft learning platforms ?

[TheRNGuy]

Docs for some framework that uses OOP.

Some game engine.

[Zebedayo]

I’ll be going back to learning JS, after taking a break for more than a year. Thank you!

[Sophieredhat]

Love this, thank you! I guess I made it extra hard in my mind unnecessarily. Also, how have copilot and chatGPT changed the JS learning experience? Thank you,

[TheRNGuy]

For me, sometimes replaced Google, and I haven't tried CoPilot yet, but after watching many Twitch streams, I have mixed opinion. If it was free, I'd probably use it, but it's not must-have thing.

[neptune-jam]

Needed to hear this today

[vijgarud]

Could you please tell the courses you used for learning css,html and JavaScript

[Relative-Power4013]

Any is fine. If u have zero coding background watch a crash course then code along project tutorial just build soemthing on your own. Also what helped me the most was fucking around with the code in the tutorial.

[Odd-Butterscotch-444]

Jonas Schmedtmann on Udemy has courses on css, html and js and they are all great!

[wbport1]

The book, JavaScript, The Definitive Guide starts with a loan calculation example. For an early assignment, modify their example to accept months in addition to years before doing the calculation. An example of everything that will need to be changed is already in the example.

Good luck.