Javascript

I started my learning to code journey with JavaScript. I’d argue that with the exception of BBC Basic - which I learned back in the 1980’s - it’s the only programming language I’ve ever invested any time into.

I have stopped and started over the years, without much progress.

Recently I picked up Colt Steeles’ Web Developer Bootcamp 2024. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that 74 hours of videos and work makes it a substantial course in learning to code.

But.

After 50 hours of videos and probably another 50-100 hours of tinkering and taking copious notes, I’ve decided to abandon this track and switch to PHP and Laravel via Laracasts instead.

The sunk cost fallacy loomed large in my head when I made that choice, but I’m confident it was the right one; the speed of learning in Laracasts is much more my style.

The Colt Steele course is excellent, and the level of detail available is absolutely insane.

The level of detail being so insane means there can be massive gaps between learning a concept and then applying it in a ‘production’ app - so much so that I found myself forgetting a ton of principles, never mind the code itself.

Laracasts does not hang around and it is hard to stick with it, but I feel like I’m really making a time investment here - after around 3 hours we’ve already built an app, connected a database, and are building on the foundations of app building rather than learning to code.

That way round was the unlock for me - start with the principles of app building, and scaffold the code around to to support what you want to do.

I realised after long twitter threads and the ever-present drama, I didn’t need to learn to program to make a career out of it.

I want to build apps.

And for that, I want to move fast. I want to have a preselected group of solutions - an ‘opinionated’ framework - there to let me just get on with the process of building an app.

Sure, there is plenty more to learn, and I will likely return to Javascript for front end dev (React, for example, or htmx), but for now I’m ‘quickly’ building up php skills and will need to take some brave steps to hack together a work app using what I learn.

So, yeah. I’m making a big change in my learning journey, to get me to the end point faster.

(I’ll likely finish watching all the videos in the WDB series simply because of the potential value they offer, but I’m not investing more time in notes and practice - that goes into PHP now).