Angelina Fabbro: JavaScript Masterclass | JSConf US

I am not an expert developer. I am also not a beginning developer.

I'm an intermediate developer, and I want to navigate the path from being a mediocre or good developer, to becoming a great or expert level developer.

How in the heck do I do this?

The tutorial ecosystem of the web is heavily skewed towards beginners, but what about the rest of us?

If you identify with these statements in the slightest, then this talk is for you. With ideas from cognitive science, education, and some advice from admired programmers along the way, we are going to explore what it means to be a world-class developer and what we need to do to get there. I'll talk a little bit about the philosophy, attitude, and habits (both good and bad) required for learning how to learn better, and then we will talk about the kinds of skills and knowledge that an expert programmer in general needs. Along the way we'll touch about various myths and cognitive biases about who can and cannot be a great programmer, and leave you with a path to get started. By the end of the talk, I will have proposed a curriculum of topics that should take an intermediate developer and turn them into an advanced one, and special attention will be given to mastery of the JavaScript language.

Meet Angelina
Angelina Fabbro is a programmer based in Vancouver, Canada and works at Steamclock Software. Angelina has a background in cognitive science, building clever robots and researching what people pay attention to. Her record as a web developer is balanced with modern iOS experience and a keen sense of design. Angelina also both teaches and mentors for the Vancouver chapter of Ladies Learning Code.

[An_Urban_monk]

Great talk. She identified the #1 quality of a programmer: logical thinking. She stopped short of dispelling a myth about computer science that math has anything to do with programming. Math is to programming what cheese is to cooking. Some recipes call for cheese, most don't. Vegans never cook with cheese, but they still cook.

[RandallGoya]

Despite the title, this video is not about JavaScript, it is an introductory lecture about how people become "coders" and how "intermediate" coders can become "experts." It is about curiosity and logic. Every "coder"should watch this. One of the comments on YouTube: This could have been a good TED talk.

[cool-as-cucumber]

I believe some people are naturally inclined towards thinking more logically.

[CarlosLlamacho]

I have to say, she really nailed the zone in between beginner and expert.... I didn't stop thinking "That's me!!!"  during all those clues. Excellent.

[tandisunarto]

Great talk. I have been a software developer for over 20+ years and still hard to shake off the impostor syndrome. The more I learn and the more pluralsight videos I watch, the more I realize there is much I don't know yet.

[CarltonStith]

Wonderfully stated. I loved it when she said "...write code, a lot!"

[AndrewOgryzek]

I love that you actually gave this talk, and am so happy that it was shared!

[sticken]

This should definitely be a TED talk!

[Baltasarmk]

I had almost 10 years experience in big companies, and I do not meet any programmer who say that programming is "special". They all saying that this is thing that anyone can do, if they want this.

[zalafinari]

I really enjoyed this talk, and even played it for my wife who is not a programmer as I feel there's a ton of good advice and ideas presented here that are applicable to learning in general, not just about programming or JS.

[cme]

WoW, I realized that I gave the same speech to some friends before ! it feels good to listen to my own words from someone else as good reminder, , now I'm thinking of building test cases for logic, math, ... etc like "portal game tests" for children so that they grow up becoming the best programmers in the world. :)

[darkmojojojo]

I fell in love with this speaker in the first 5 minutes in hearing her talk. Poignant and down to earth.

[victorespinoza]

I agree with what Aditya Menon said. I am trying to become a javaScript programmer and this was video made me gave me the fuel I needed to keep going. Thanks Angelina!

[Almjz]

"The code is inert until you give it purpose." Most helpful thing.

[KaiGittens]

I was proud to say I was at JSConf 2013 for this bad boy...one of the best talks there, IMHO.

[EasterThisEgg]

I imagine! I'm glad to see that there are some talk about the humanity / soul of coding as well. It tends to be forgotten at these conventions. I really enjoyed it.

[adityamenon]

Some of the things you said moved me so much; thank you for the wonderful talk Angelina.

#javascript   #expertise  

[EasterThisEgg]

One of the lesser JavaScript technical talks, but so super damn important. Thank you so much for sharing! A Must See!

[OkSpry]

I love the way that you open this talk. 

[DaveJacoby]

I love this video. Granted, there _is_ a hierarchy within programming, with userland folks looking up to library devs looking up to OS coders, and everyone thinking that language developers have a second brain, but if you code, you're a coder. There is no license or secret handshake. Welcome to the club.

I can't help to see a bit of _Hot Fuzz_ -- "I want to do what _you_ do!" "You _do_ do what I do!" -- and that's fine, but for most of the field, all you need to level up is out there, mostly online, and you just need to seek it out.