Don't Learn JavaScript and React at the Same Time

This post was originally published on August 21, 2020 on my blog.

(NOTE: I'm hosting a webinar TODAY (August 21) at 12pm (noon) EST: 5 Steps to Starting and Following All the Way Through on Your Side Projects!

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Hello and happy Friday! I'm finding I don't have anything too inspiring to blog about this week. Must not be in that frame of mind (and that's ok!)

I can, however, write a little bit about the progress I've been making with learning React (for what seems like the third or fourth time).

Currently, I'm going through an ebook I purchased some months ago called Pure React by Dave Ceddia. It's pretty great, and I started in on it after buying it in the past only to realize that I was quickly lost because I hadn't spent too much time getting solid JavaScript foundations.

There's a lot of debate in the developer community, I've noticed, around whether or not it's OK to learn React at the same time as you're learning JavaScript. Every developer who has experience with it will have a different opinion.

After my few false starts with trying to learn React (while not have JavaScript basics dialed in), I'm definitely a proponent of learning JavaScript fundamentals and being comfortable on a high level with it before trying to pick up a framework like React (or Angular or Vue).

In my experience, there was a lot of confusion for me around where JavaScript ended and what exactly was a specific feature of React. And that can be tricky, especially if in the future you're just using JavaScript (no framework) and you find yourself confused about not being able to lean on features from a framework instead.

Anyway! I'm making my way now through Pure React with a much more solid foundation with JavaScript. And it's helping enormously.

Seriously, not only is the information just overall making so much more sense, but it's actually just a lot more fun being fully aware of the concepts that are being taught and talked about.

I don't have any specific examples to give right now, but I'm looking forward to continuing on with it and hopefully being able to share more of my experiences here in these posts.

Also, instead of trying to rush through the course as quickly as I can (just to be able to 'check it off' and move on to the next one), I've given myself a full six weeks to do it.

Within that six weeks, I've broken it down into working on it three times a week - on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for a couple hours each day.

This is exactly the sort of thing I talk about in my 5-step blueprint for starting and finishing/following through on side projects, so if you want to check that out, you can do so right over here! >

P.S. Did you know I have a podcast with new episodes each Wednesday? Go listen right over here >>