What Do You Do When You're Stuck?

#beginners

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm not sure which direction to move in. Should I learn this new framework? Or a new language? Or maybe I need to brush up on something I haven't touched in a while? freeCodeCamp or pay for a class?

As someone new to tech, it is pretty intimidating knowing where to start and/or when to stop. If you have any advice, please leave it in the comments! If I try out any of your suggestions, I'll make sure to let you know if it worked for me!

Top comments (5)

Coner Murphy • Dec 15 '19

The most important thing you can do as a new developer is have a goal, something you're trying to achieve. It doesn't need to be something that's going to make you money or build you an empire. Because when you're new to it all, the value isn't held in the end product but rather the journey along the way.

For so long, I said I wanted to learn to code but had no goals, no ideas just a hopeful wish and guess what I achieved nothing, this went on for years.

Now, starting only a few months ago, I decided to take it seriously and set goals, build a new portfolio, build this website, find a way to do this. Not because they'll change the world because I guarantee they've all been done hundreds of times before. But, I learnt so much it kept me moving forward. And, this is what's important.

Finally, if you're ever stuck on what to do. Drop all the frameworks and libraries, challenge yourself to build something using the pure language itself.

I started my journey learning React and Gatsby and guess what I did stuff because I was told to not because I understood it. So recently, I've dropped all of it and gone back to basic JS and in the last few weeks I've learnt more about JS and how it works than I ever did before and now React and makes more sense to me.

So in summary:

Set a goal, even if it doesn't make sense and you'll never use it again.
Don't worry about frameworks, they change the language doesn't.

And, most importantly enjoy the journey. :)

Si • Dec 15 '19

If you asked 100 people this question, I'll make an educated guess that a high percentage will tell you to learn technology X because the latest survey from Y says it's one of the highest demand and highest paying in this industry.

This isn't necessarily bad advice, but if you're just starting out in this industry I'll give you the following advice:

Just do something. It doesn't matter what language you're coding in, or what frontend framework you're using, it's more important to be doing something on a regular basis.
Do what you enjoy. Don't bother learning JavaScript if you don't enjoy the language.

Once you're more experienced, you'll be able to look at industry/market trends and choose what to learn based on that and, providing you've made it that far because you stuck with it (because you enjoyed what you were doing), you'll find it much easier learning a second language than your first.