This Is Why You Can’t Learn Web Dev

Learning web development is hard and it has only been getting harder and harder each year. In this video I talk about why web development has been getting harder to learn and what you can do to overcome that difficulty and truly learn web development.

📚 Materials/References:

🌎 Find Me Here:

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction
01:34 - The Problem
02:44 - What Is Changing
08:48 - What To Do About This

#WebDevelopment #WDS #JavaScript

[Fireship]

This video is out of date, bloat.js is dead

[tbfromsd]

Been a programmer and dev for 26 years, what I told the kids I mentored was, knowing variables, loops, arrays, methods, constructors, etc doesn't make you a programmer, solving problems does. You only become better by seeing more problems, including the ones you create 😂. Also if you feel overwhelmed you aren't thinking small enough.

[hannah]

Intro is incredibly accurate 😂😂 Id highly recommend people look at the lists Kyle recommends. Super useful

[burhankhatib]

You just said it best! I've been a graphic designer and web designer for +20 years and decided to learn web development last year. Since then I watch you and others to learn from and I started creating projects that really interest me and motivate me to learn more and enhance the way I wrote code. Thank you for being on YouTube and I will buy your course for sure to learn even more ❤ Best regards from Palestine 🇵🇸

[MarshMakesComics]

I’ll never get tired of hearing encouraging messages like this. It’s been a struggle to learn but this makes me feel like I can do it and helps me stay focused on the fundamentals knowing that it will pay off! Thanks man!

[gentlemanjack]

Learning programming is like bouncing between endless edges of multi-dimensional pinball table of knowledge. Most important thing is to write, write, write and if you are stuck find how to fix it and come back to writing. Second most important thing is to spend a lot of time understanding the basics - your head is like a workshop with tools. Even if you don't have a chainsaw in your workshop to cut the trees but you have enough tools you will be able eventually to build the chainsaw or at least you will know how it works so you can avoid a lot of problems and maybe save a hand or two.

[blu]

i fell in this hell loop of trying to catch up with everything new and being a perfectionist after i graduated in 2018...so now im unemployed for 5 years rip.

[mariusdorobantu]

I'm curently learning js for about 5 months and i must agree that's pretty hard for me. Not having a computer background or, i donno, a math thiking. I must agree that i have very bad days and i give up, then come back to learn again, and so on. It's seems like you have to trust the process, you have to take breaks to give time for that infos you learn to sediment. I totally agree with what you say, man, just DON'T WATCH OTHERS JOURNEYS, with theirs miraculous " I've larned JS in 7 days "! Thank you for 15 minutes of motivation and light @Web Dev Simplified <3, much love from Romania! <3

[coderbdev]

25+ years, and I am still learning. You are 100% correct on learning the foundations of programming. Foundational programming knowledge will translate between languages. Whether it is front end or back end, learn the fundamentals of those areas, and you will have a MASSIVE jumpstart on a long term, successful, career in programming. IMO, learning or having great problem-solving skill is just as important as the programming side. That way, you will be on your way to being a successful Sr Level Developer, or Software Architect. Opportunities open up with mastering these fundamental skills.

[stephenm]

Could not agree more.

I've been in the industry since 1990 in Atlanta and have been so fortunate to have lived it from pretty much the beginning.

The industry is all about building on the fundamentals.

Yes there are always going to be new ways to implement these to accommodate shifts in usage but at the core it's always layered on the fundamentals. This is where the basic mathematics, protocols and engineering platforms live.

Master these and you'll be able to discern how and why new implementations present and evolve so you'll be prepared to evaluate and choose the new "shiny" for yourself.

Btw, there is maybe five youtube channels I go to for info for current web development and this is definitely one of them.

Thank you Kyle for your talent and efforts. It's always excellent.

[KusuKijeru]

I'm a newbie, but I'd like to share a little about my programming learning journey. I started by watching YouTube videos on where to start, and based on general opinions, I began with Python (I had learned some Pascal and VB in school many years ago). So, I started watching tutorials, creating learning programs from beginner to expert videos. At the time, I was working at a company as a bike delivery person.

After the tutorial, now I'm an expert! 😄 I started creating a program to help the letter delivery company. Basically, I was programming from one problem to another, fixing and moving on to the next problem. I learned a lot with this program I created because it evolved from importing data from Excel, creating Excel sheets and data tables, comparing data, having inputs, and even interfacing with Tkinter. My program had many uses for the company. Right away, even before it was completed, I already had the company using it and loving it because they could scan the letters, and the program would tell them with images and sounds if that letter needed to be returned to base, reposted to mail, or still wait for feedback. Before my program, the company was doing this with Excel, which was slow.

At this point, I was getting "good" at Python. I totally understood its essence, but I kind of hated the user interface (UI) I created in Figma and coded in Tkinter. It felt like a program from 2000, and we're in 2023. So, I started looking for other libraries and ways to make my Python program look good. I ended up finding a YouTube channel where a guy created really good-looking dashboards with Java and NetBeans. I initially thought, "No, no, " but of course, I went into YouTube and started with beginner to expert Java tutorials. I also did the Google Grasshopper courses, which were really good. I totally recommend them, and they give certificates for free.

Well, now I was a "Java expert" or not. I started recreating my whole program in Java, and I have to say, I fell in love with Java. For me, I prefer Java over Python. It changed everything for me. I don't know if it's the best way to program or not, but it's "my style." I love creating methods in a Java file and calling them as the backend, getting the whole code in there, and then just calling the methods in other Java files as I need them. But again, I faced problems from one issue to another while working on the program. However, this time it was actually fun. When I was adding sounds, I accidentally discovered that the whole code, like 100 lines of "math" to do comparisons, etc., already existed in Java itself. I think it was the built-in "equals" function or something similar. So basically, after two weeks of thinking and problem-solving, I discovered I could replace 100 lines with one word. It was part of the learning process. Now my Java program had a beautiful UI, and the beeping part was working again. I had removed the Excel inputs and decided to create some tables by pasting from the clipboard, which the company loved.

After that, I created a login system with auto-login, and I decided to do some web scraping with Selenium. So, there was no more copying from the pasteboard; my Java app was going to get the data directly from the website. With this, I added new features. After separating the letters, we had to input them into the system one by one, beeping as we went. Now, with web scraping and some automation, my app was doing it all on its own. We just had to use the separate letters tool, press play, and the computer would take over the mouse and do everything as if it were a person. At this point, I was no longer delivering letters; I was working in the company's office. All of this happened within a month.

But sadly, this program came a bit too late for the company. It was a franchising company, and they had a lot of past problems due to the tons of manual work they had to do. So, while my program was saving the company, it was too late, and the owner decided to close the company. Other similar companies did not trust buying my app, even if I offered them a free test. It's quite sad. I decided, "Well, let's go learn some HTML, CSS, and JavaScript." The owner of the company asked me to create a webpage for him, and he paid me, but it was a simple page. It had to have a form, fill out a PDF, and send the PDF via email. With my Java knowledge, some Googling, and now ChatGPT, I started using it. I was able to create it, but it wasn't the best. I encountered a ton of problems with the PDFs, and the email was receiving blank PDFs. However, somehow I managed to make it work. I had never programmed with promises and asynchronous methods, so it was tough. I didn't fully understand what I was doing, especially with sending the email because I created the PDFs with JavaScript. I retrieved data from the document inputs and created the PDF with a library called jsPDF. So basically, if you know Java, learning JavaScript becomes quite easy. I had a million problems, and it took me about a month to create the website, which is a simple webpage, but it's working.

Creating my own projects helped me grow a lot. So, if someone is starting, my advice is to learn a foundational language like Python or Java, and then move on to web development with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. After that, you can dive into web application development, like Django (if you're into Python) or Spring (if you're into Java). However, I can't provide much advice on web application development because at this stage, it's really confusing what to do. You can use JavaScript or React for both the front end and back end and send dynamic data to the front end. It's a bit messy, and I'm still trying to figure it out. But based on my experience (which may not be the best, just my opinion), starting with a foundational language like Python or Java and then transitioning to web development is a good approach. If I were to start again, I would choose Java instead of Python, but Django also seems really good. So, the best advice is to choose one or two streams, one language, follow tutorials, challenge yourself to create something, and don't use ChatGPT initially. Don't keep searching for language comparisons; just choose one and stick with it.

An amazing thing about programming is that whatever you think is possible, and a computer can do it, either Python or Java can handle it. The rest are just "patches." It all comes down to the foundational programming languages. I'm sorry for the huge comment, but I hope it helps someone who reads it.

[mr.xharlie]

Thank you for this honestly. I needed to hear this. I finished learning react a few months ago and now more I'm hearing of server rendering and I feel like I'm swimming in an ocean and the current is pulling me away. I needed this. Thank you Kyle


Also if you're reading this and you're feeling like me, you will get that first job. You're amazing have a great day

[TheVincent]

I am a developer since '94, working mainly with Microsoft products. A considerable amount of your time goes to debugging: setting breakpoints; analysing logs; writing scripts to support your process; reading on Stackoverflow how to solve a problem. Also, waiting for the compiler to finish it's job can be quite boring.
At the moment I am learning Blazor for building web applications, which looks very promising.

[michaeljohnson]

The best thing any aspiring web developer can do to speed things up is to ignore Youtube unless you need a guide or something and just build projects. Frontend Mentor was a blessing for me and I'm still learning but I continue to improve everyday. Don't do like I did and think that studying constantly is going to make you better. It does, of course, but actually applying that knowledge is key. Also, work on your algorithms for gradual critical thinking improvement!

[japandebunked]

Thanks for some really great advice!
3 months into learning how to program, still doesn‘t feel like I‘ll ever get somewhere, but looking back… I think I‘ve already come quite far.
Not getting discouraged and knowing what to learn next is the best advice I‘ve gotten so far.
Doubling down on basics!!

[seangil]

Diggin the change of scenery in the background

[superlamzi]

You grabbed me with the intro. man! For YEARS I have been doing just that. Even now when I am actually at a Dev position I still do

[mhadi-dev]

Regarding Fireship, I don’t think his channel is targeting Dev juniors, he’s more like for the seniors

I admire his work as a senior because he delivers the most important things in a timely manner. Because currently we have tutorials out there teaches you how to center a div in a 33 minutes video

[GrahamAtDesk]

Nice video, you make some great points. On those outliers who seem like they got good really quickly, we need to remember that this is a craft that you can spend a lifetime learning. So while we should all make sure we celebrate our progress, if these quick learners you mentioned showed their work to somebody with 5 years more experience I'm sure they'd be able to get some really good constructive feedback. I'm just over 25 years in, currently working as an engineering coach, but still learning every day.

This career is a gift for people who enjoy the act of learning new stuff.

Your point about putting effort into the fundamentals is spot on. The time I spent studying naming and refactoring 20 years ago has paid off every year since. But the 5 years I spent getting good at Perl (and a component-based web framework called Mason - yes, components were a thing!) were just a stepping stone to all the tech that followed it.

We mustn't forget to neglect our tools either. Learning the tools that come with your operating system (particularly if it's Unix-based) always pays off. I find the people I coach can benefit significantly by learning how to put a few simple Unix commands together (e.g. find, grep).

[beaticulous]

When I heard the term "virtual DOM" I looked away immediately. Been doing great!