What programming language to learn first: JavaScript vs Python | ThePrimeagen and Lex Fridman

See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.

*GUEST BIO:*
ThePrimeagen (aka Michael Paulson) is a programmer who has educated, entertained, and inspired millions of people to build software and have fun doing it.

*CONTACT LEX:*

*EPISODE LINKS:*

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To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
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*PODCAST LINKS:*

*SOCIAL LINKS:*

[LexClips]

See below for guest bio, links, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.

*GUEST BIO:*
ThePrimeagen (aka Michael Paulson) is a programmer who has educated, entertained, and inspired millions of people to build software and have fun doing it.

*CONTACT LEX:*

*EPISODE LINKS:*

*SPONSORS:*
To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:
*Invideo AI:* AI video generator.
*Shopify:* Sell stuff online.
*NetSuite:* Business management software.
*BetterHelp:* Online therapy and counseling.
*AG1:* All-in-one daily nutrition drinks.

*PODCAST LINKS:*

*SOCIAL LINKS:*

[phantasyphotography]

I actually started learning programming with python but I gave up for a few years because it was boring to me. I started web development years later and I was hooked because I could see the cool things being rendered in the browser. When I started learning to manipulate the DOM with Javascript and write code for events, my mind was blown lol It's not only a practical language but the satisfaction from visual feedback with the practicality of you're actually building something useful and usable is priceless. Now I'm writing mobile apps with React Native and building APIs with NestJS. The point is you just need a language that gets you hooked for whatever reason, for me it was the visual feedback of my code doing something that people could actually use.

[LifeOfMasson]

I dabbled with programming for years, it wasn't until I started to be able to "see" what I was making until I got hooked. Javascript was the language for that.

[BrianOSheaPlus]

3:44 - HTML is a markup language. It might technically be Turing complete, but it wasn't designed to be used as a general purpose programming language, and it would take great machinations to get it to do anything useful, outside of being used as a markup language.

[drsomto]

Once you learn one programming language, it's easier to learn other languages

[eman]

Powershell was my first language I learned before learning Bash scripting and Python. I build a lot of automation tools on the job. All three of these languages are extremely common in IT esp sysadmin, Cloud and DevOps. I plan on learning Go Lang next. Picking a set of languages all depends on what career path you choose.

[christopherlyons]

Python is very strong and you can extend it in a wide variety of ways. And it's s fairly simple to jump over to the embedded space with Micro Python. You loose a bit since it's an interpreted language but with the extreme hardware speed that's available today that's not much of a downside.

[kimjosh]

I have been in data science, web development and game engine integration with AWS integration. The answer depends on tasks. Python, sql for data science hands down. For web development, JS (including react and some other plugins like EJS) and Type script. Python is usable but overwhelming majorities use JS along side HTML and CSS which are the components of JS. For gaming engine (I use Unreal Engine) development and integration with other platform c++ is a dominant language. There is no JS vs Python, they serve different purposes

[ITSFRICKENADAM]

I’m a hobbyist coder that is accidentally full stack. I learned js, html, css, python, sql and kubernetes (not a language), just because I had a need that each of the languages couldn’t fulfill alone.

[yuriynyr]

I am going through a self paced, full stack bootcamp and I am enjoying it so far. I am still in the early stages and going through flexbox, grid, and bootstrap. I am constantly looking forward to learning the next thing so perhaps this is my calling but I am concerned about the job hunting phase and if this career path is worth it to sink in hundreds of hours into if it's really difficult to get a job as a software engineer. My goal is to build a portfolio website and have a resume and projects section where ill showcase my capstone projects.If anyone would have any advice it would be greatly appreciated!!

[soniaa]

Currently, I am learning html, css and Javascript using mimo app. I have no programming experience. I am learning for fun. I still don't know what I am doing. I see a pattern and I am able to fill in the blanks most of the time.

[simrans]

How the heck do these full stack devs know everything! it's mind boggling to me that the the entire tech stack has a gazillion tools, languages, frameworks, libraries, methods, functions....and they keep is a person to do!

[sagarsirsat]

Great content with proper links and acoounts attached with the images. Thanks Lex for making great content like this❤

[ZeroKool]

Can't i ask my LLM to code for me?

[cas]

We are talking about programming languages like they are going to be around in the next 5-10 years

[ifstatementifstatement]

Javascript or python as a first language?! That's fucking rough. It should be a real programming language, like C or C++.

[elvispalace]

I FULL AGREE. Start with JS, then go to low level until binary. UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HAPPENING

[makedredd]

JavaScript is a bad first language to learn. Because reading other peoples small JavaScript code on Codepen usually makes zero sense. You don’t know how they wrote it and why they made various code design choices.

[saisuhasiniramalingam]

Very nice, I am good at C# 🙌
Go is very different from C# or Python. Go is difficult a bit.

[lukewood]

I'm Delft teaching JS, and I'm just VERY confused at the moment in things like how events work under the hood(so maybe I can build my own with the same reactivity of the native ones), and how an application keeps a kind of internal clock, like a "tick" that's equivalent to a fraction of real time so the app reacts to every change from tick1 to tick2, and how systems are conscious of all changes within itself.