How to Learn Javascript as a Self-Taught Developer
Four months ago in August of 2021, I started learning how to become a web developer. Since then I have learned a lot about what being a developer or a programmer means. In this blog-series, I share my journey in becoming a «self-taught» web dev for anyone who is looking to become one as well.
In the last post, I shared my experience from my first two months starting from scratch. Before starting this journey I was not familiar with what HTML, CSS and Javascript were and so in the first months I spent my time learning what these computer languages are and how to start programming using them. To read the full post you can check it out here.
How to Learn Javascript For Beginners?
For new web developers, there is a huge necessity to firmly understand the Javascript language. I spent a good amount of time getting comfortable programming in Javascript, which I’m really glad I did. When you first start learning Javascript for your first programming language, it can seem a bit daunting.
My advice for you is to start with the introductory Javascript YouTube videos, podcasts and/or books(however you learn the best), and start a list where you write down the topics you find particularly hard.
Then come back to that list once you get through the introductory content and look up specific explanations on those topics you have written down.
By doing so you will eventually learn most of what you need to know to get a firm grasp on Javascript.
What should I learn after HTML, CSS and Javascript?
After having learned the basics of these three, there were two things I spent the majority of my time doing:
- Creating projects in Javascript
- Finding a framework built on Javascript to learn
What Projects Can I Make with Javascript?
Most experienced developers will tell you to start building stuff to learn Javascript… So, that’s what I spent a lot of the past two months doing.
I build projects that would help me practice what I have learned from the courses I had taken. Here are some of the projects I did, which can be good beginner projects once you know the basics of Javascript:
- Countdown Timer
- Random Joke Generator
- Calculator
- Counter
- Timer/Stopwatch
- To-Do List
- Websites
These can seem daunting if you don’t know the basics, but once you do it becomes so much easier. There are a bunch of tutorials that you can follow online for these projects. After a while, you should try to do them without following a tutorial.
During these two months I also learned what Git was and how to commit my projects to GitHub. As a habit of getting comfortable with GitHub, I typically upload most of my projects big or small.
If you don’t know, GitHub is online platform where you can upload your code to keep track of changes in your code, and to make working with other programmers much easier.
Which Javascript framework should I learn?
After getting comfortable with the basics and having done a lot of projects, the next step was to start learning a Javascript framework.
Programming frameworks let the programming code more effectively and time-efficiently, which makes learning a framework valuable.
In Javascript there are three frameworks that are the most well-known:
- React
- Vue
- Angular
Each one has its benefits, but after doing some research I found that as of 2021 that React is the most popular one. I noticed React being mentioned far more times than Angular and Vue, during my learning. When looking at job listings where I live(in Oslo, Norway), there was a common thread that companies were looking for React developers.
Also comparing the three by looking at Google trends for the past five years, shows that React is vastly more popular than the other two.
So, the next step was to start an introductory course on React and I first found one on Udemy(by Shaun Pelling), and followed the React CS50 Harvard courses on Youtube.
For the next two months, the goal is to get much more comfortable with creating React projects, and continue gaining experience in more advanced Javascript projects. I also aim to get more experience in creating responsive websites using CSS.
For those who are new and aspiring web developers, I hope to inspire you by sharing my journey from scratch, and want you to know that you can do this!
If I can leave you with a few pieces of advice for your journey is to:
- Code frequently. Code a little every day.
- Keep a list of the things you yet do not understand.
- Practice studying using the spacing effect. Learning is often more effective when your study sessions are spaced out. Learn some, then come back to it after some hours, days, or a week.