Always Be Learning
08 Oct 2020
In June, I blogged about my love for coding. I wanted to get back to coding and develop something out of nothing. However, I felt rusty and didn't know where to begin. Earlier this year, I had taken a few courses on Flutter and Swift OS on Udemy and thought I'd build a mobile app. But, web development is what I feel inclined to get into and I wanted to learn to become a full-stack developer so that I had full control over the entire development process. A part of me wanted to learn React.js and Next.js, but something kept telling me I needed to firm up my foundation as I had been away from web development for way too long (btw, I started my career as a web developer from 2000 to 2007). I wanted to get a good grip on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript before I learnt any of the JavaScript frameworks. Since I was comfortable with Angela Yu's courses on Udemy (she is a fantastic teacher), I started her The Complete Web Development Bootcamp Course 2 months back. It has 35 sections, 469 lectures, 54 hours long and packed with awesomeness.
HTML 5
CSS 3
Bootstrap 4
JavaScript ES6
JQuery
Unix/Git
Node.js
Express.js
EJS
MongoDB + Mongoose
Restful APIs
Authentication & Security
React.js
I did feel weird learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Jquery again, but I set my ego aside and chugged along.
My main aim for the course was to know what was possible (even the tiny things) so that I could use those superpowers to become a maker. For example, once I learned about Express.js and setting up routes, I had the power to set up a site with multiple pages and post requests. With EJS, I could take out the header and footer of a page and inject them on any of the pages without duplicating code. HTML5 has options for placeholders in forms - I didn't know this until I went through the course. Better yet, the React.js course had me using Code Sandbox, a web-based IDE and prototyping tool for rapid web dev.
These courses are not about learning the syntax, but to know what is possible when you are dreaming about building something. There are things we know we know. There are things we know we don't know. And then there are things we don't know we don't know. I realized I needed to focus on the last one to increase my breadth of knowledge in web development. Just go out and explore different technologies, platforms and strategies to see what is possible.
I am looking forward to building something for myself in the coming months by putting all this knowledge to use. It is much more exciting now that I know how to stitch something from start to finish (FullStack?).
Always be learning.