I started to JS and need help

You Can Do This!
#1

Hello I need some help from you guys about JS and other languages. I started to programming a few months ago and I took my Responsive Web Design certification recently.

Now I started to learn JavaScript and I’d finished the first section of the curriculum. But I realized that I don’t understand well the fundemantals of JS, so I decided to watch this FreeCodeCamp’s 3 hours tutorial with taking notes .

I should also stated that I’m a 3th grade psychology students, and someday I want to study on computational neuroscience programs on abroad. Software languages like C, Python, JS and etc. are can be good on my CV so I want to learn all of them but I always gettin’ stuck on simple points and want to give up .

Is anyone here like me who try to learn programming by one’s own and having these kinda problems? I wondering how you handle it and can you talk about your techniques you use to don’t give up. And do you think if I try really hard ( for example 2 hour for a day) can I could be considered good on four programming languages (C, C+, Python, JavaScript) in one and a half year? Thank you.

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#2

There are a lot of people on FCC learning on their own. Nearly every person here has had similar frustrations. People often get “stuck on simple points and want to give up”. It is very normal. Programming is hard and takes time.

And do you think if I try really hard ( for example 2 hour for a day) can I could be considered good on four programming languages (C, C+, Python, JavaScript) in one and a half year?

It depends on what you consider “considered good” and what that means in the field you are doing. I’m not familiar with “computational neuroscience”, but I’m guessing that Python would be very popular with that - it is popular and trendy with scientific and data fields. FCC focusses on web development - building web pages, etc. That would probably also be good to have, but maybe not as directly as Python. That being said, learning JS would make Python easier to learn. FCC has a Python course, but I think it is still fleshing out now.

A year and half? You could probably get “pretty good” at one of those, maybe two. I wouldn’t try for all four. But again, each programming language is easier to learn than the last.

I would talk to your professors or advisers and see which language they think would be most beneficial.

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#3

Thank you for answering, I’m seeing you in all forum threads you are really great.

Like you said, Python is really popular on so many Psychology sub branches . I think I’m gonna listen your advice and focus on both (JS and Python)

#4

@kevinSmith …I just read your reply to @halilciftci and found it very motivating. I learned html & CSS at school while learning web design, but still need JS at least to be considered for employment (plenty of views at my portfolio, but no job offers). I get scared that I’m not ever going to learn everything I need to know to be seriously considered for employment, and yet, I cannot give up…I just cannot quit on myself. It seems like there is so much and it gets overwhelming. I also think I would like a clearer idea of what I need in order to be employed as a developer. It took a while for me to discover coding and that this is what I want to do. It’s my dream now and I don’t want to give up.

#5

Cool, yeah, to be a web developer, you definitely need JS. There was a time when when HTML and CSS were enough, but that stuff is too easy to create with wysiwyg editors that anyone can use.

I also think I would like a clearer idea of what I need in order to be employed as a developer.

I think there are two reasonable answers to that:

  1. That is an impossible question to answer.
  2. More than you think.

That is a difficult question to answer. It is a sliding scale. You are employable right now, just not “very”. Every thing you learn makes you a little more employable.

So, what is a good path? I think FCC has a pretty good path. With that you will have a basic understanding of a MERN stack, a very respectable stack.

To break it down further, I would want this kind of a path:

  • a good understanding of JS, including ES6 and ESNext
  • a basic understanding of some basic algorithms
  • a modern view library (React, Angular, or Vue) and their supporting libraries
    • another approach would be a SSR library like handlebars or EJS
  • some backend and API knowledge
  • some basic unit testing knowledge

FCC covers those pretty well. I would say that you could probably skip over the Python sections for now. (They could make a good backend, but those sections still need to be developed - but the Node sections are well developed - either makes a good backend.)

After that, I think it’s about building projects, learning new libraries, and trying to get a little experience (freelance, opensource, etc.)

You just keep learning and building and building and learning. It’s the projects that you build that are going to make the biggest impression (other than real world experience). You build some projects with FCC, but except for the fullstack ones, they aren’t going to get much attention. And I think the ones that you invent from scratch will impress more.

I get scared that I’m not ever going to learn everything I need to know to be seriously considered for employment

You don’t have to learn everything. You don’t have to memorize everything. You have to understand a lot of things, know what is available, and know where to find the information. No one has all this stuff memorized.

It seems like there is so much and it gets overwhelming.

Yup.

It took a while for me to discover coding and that this is what I want to do.

I didn’t start my rebirth as a coder until I was 47. Just work hard and keep learning.

An old contributer here wrote up some interesting guides.

Yeah, getting that first job is hard. Very hard. At the risk of another shameless plug, I once wrote a doc with some thoughts on getting that first job. But read what other people say about it too. There are a lot of different ideas and a lot of them are good.

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#6

ya I also get stuck…i would suggest that you try using freeCodeCamp YouTube tutorial with the Curriculum material you will get a better understanding.

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#7

@kevinSmith Wow! That’s a wealth of information and very concise…THANK YOU! And given your “yup” in response to how much there is to learn, your response actually made me feel less anxious about it all.

I didn’t start my rebirth as a coder until I was 47. Just work hard and keep learning.

Thanks for sharing that as well; I began at 57 so it’s nice to know I’m not the only one on this journey in later years.

I appreciate your thoughtful reply and the links. I’ll be referring back to your post probably very frequently Kevin.

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#8

Focus on one language and think about why it is you want to use it and what your motivation for learning it is. Learning four languages at once for no purpose other than they look good on a cv is going to be a mess and you won’t stay motivated.

Python is used for scientific computing and data analysis so that’s presumably a good option for you but you need to research yourself.

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