Learning to Code

The Two Types of Developers (And How Both Can Get Stuck)

Now, as we start with our coding journey, we usually fall into two categories of people:

The First Type (me):
Ever since I started with JavaScript and then moved to TypeScript, like every other JS dev, whenever I went online, I used to see established programmers totally shitting on JS (like ThePrimeTime). I was so influenced by them that it really made me think: maybe I’m not doing the right language, maybe this isn’t good enough to get me a job.

All of that was going through my head without me actually understanding what they were talking about. I just thought, well, this man works at Netflix — obviously, he knows more than me. So I didn’t even try to question what he was saying.

He would say things like, “JavaScript being a single-threaded language slows down due to bad promise usage and garbage collection.” Now, I knew what those words meant individually — but not what they meant together, and that made me panic.

The Second Type:
These are mostly people who started learning (most likely through a bootcamp) to earn quick money or because they saw somewhere that full-stack development is where the real stuff is. I have no problem with people doing it solely for money — it's an important factor — but what I do have a problem with is how set in their ways they become.

They learn one path and just stick to it. When they see people criticizing the language they use, they just assume it's hate, and never stop to understand why those critiques are being made. Their logic? Well, my CRUD app works fine, so who cares? (It does... because you built a two-page to-do app, my guy.)

Now, as you can see — like peak story writing — I managed to connect both threads.

The problem with both types comes down to this: even if they do realize there are problems, they either choose to ignore it or overthink it. Neither type takes real action with the information they receive.

This is where the problem starts.

When we start with our first programming language, we get so scared to get out of that bubble because it makes us feel stupid. And nobody wants to feel stupid. But that fear kills our growth as developers and keeps us in our comfort zone.

Why would I read the shitty Node.js docs when I can just watch a 15-minute YouTube video?

And those videos help — they really do — but most tutorials on YouTube are biased in some way. Like when I first learned React, everyone was hyping it up as this awesome thing that simplifies frontend development. And yes, React is good — but no tutorial ever told me that in React, every time you change state, the entire component re-renders. Sure, they said the words, but they didn’t explain what it means.

What they didn't say was: each time it re-renders, React rebuilds the entire virtual DOM, compares it to the old one, and then applies the necessary changes. This can be CPU-intensive in larger apps and can cause lag.

But I didn’t look into that. And since the things I was building were so small, I assumed everything was fine.

As I built more things, I started to see lag in my apps — even though I was using all the “fancy tools” and my code was error-free. I wondered, why is it lagging?

There were multiple reasons: being single-threaded, React’s rendering behavior, memory leaks, etc. But I didn’t know any of that because I never read the documentation, and I didn’t even understand what those problems meant, let alone how to solve them.

I was so stuck in my ways that I even started to blame my PC. I thought, maybe it’s just my system that’s bad. (It is, but still.)

Then one day, I saw this video by ThePrimeTime called "JR Dev for Life" — and that hit way too close to home. The article he was reviewing described me. It was like it was written about me. And honestly, I was scared. I thought, damn, I’ll be stuck in this JavaScript loop forever.

At that point, I had two choices:

Either I keep being scared and lose whatever little love or motivation I had left for this field…

Or I could expand. I could get out of my comfort zone and actually learn — just to see where I really stand.

Now, this may seem like a simple enough decision, but believe me, most of us don’t actually want to face how far behind we are. We don't want to see how many people are actually ahead of us. And most of the time, this fear happens subconsciously.

The next day, I went to the official JavaScript docs (ECMAScript, since JS doesn’t officially have its own docs). And what I found was… I did know some things, but I didn’t know the technical side of them. Especially with Node.js — things like the call stack, microtasks, workers for multithreading, how async/promises work internally, how V8 and garbage collection work, and all the native Node.js modules like .net, .os, and .stream.

I didn’t even realize how powerful these APIs were. They give us low-level control over things like TCP, OS-level tasks, and streaming — and it taught me so much more.

For example, I built my own custom HTTP server using .net, .buffer, and .stream. That single project alone helped me understand how data is transferred from one IP to another, how WebSockets work, how Express works (which I used all the time without thinking much about it). And it was not easy.

I’m not talking about Node.js being hard — I’m talking about the feeling when you open the Node.js docs and realize… you know nothing.

Like, I was using Node.js every day just to run my code — but I didn’t even know what it actually was.

Sounds crazy, right?

But here’s the thing: the confidence you gain from pushing through that discomfort is worth it. You’ll keep going through this over and over again — because that’s our job.

Right now, I’m learning Rust, and I really just wanna punch my PC.

So yeah, this will keep happening.

But if you manage to push past your comfort zone, even just a little — you’ll feel more confident, more skilled, and yes, maybe even land that dream job with the “shit load of money.” , this didn't target anyone if you feel angry with it then maybe you you are the who need to hear it and yes i did use chatgpt to correct my typos and make it look good so don't come at me with that.