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Cover image for You Don’t Need to Be a JavaScript Expert
Carl Anderson
Carl Anderson

Posted on • Originally published at carlanderson.xyz on

You Don’t Need to Be a JavaScript Expert

Learning JavaScript, there's a question that burns in everyone's mind: "When will I be done? When will I finally be an expert?" - You've fought hard, toiled for months, and you have a good grasp of the basics, but how long until you finish?

After all this effort, you still haven't learned about functional programming; you don't know how prototypal inheritance works under the hood; how do you actually use generators?

How much more time before you become a master and finally take that next step?

I'm going to put this out there: how much JavaScript you know doesn't matter. You should be taking that next step now.

It's easy as developers to want to see the entire picture before taking the first step. It's admirable to think ahead, but only if you aren't paralyzed by all the things you don't know.

You should put aside that long list of JavaScript you haven't learned. Instead, start working on the projects you want to, whether it's learning React/Vue, or creating a fun project, then focus on this much shorter list: What do you need to learn right now?

Don't worry about not knowing enough. There is always time to go back and learn more.

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Top comments (5)

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juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez

Thanks for giving me permission hahaha. I think JavaScript is awesome because I know there's never going to be a point when I won't have anything else to know about. There's always something to learn so I'll keep busy improving on it ;)

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thomasjunkos profile image
Thomas Junkツ

Since we are here a little intimate, let me tell you a secret:

You do not have to be an expert in any topic!

But shhhh do not tell anybody else.

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drozerah profile image
Drozerah

The biggest issue is not knowing that we don't know

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nebrius profile image
Bryan Hughes

👏👏👏 I couldn’t agree more! Thank you for writing this.

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jamesapeters profile image
jamesApeters

(JIT) Oh yes! Just in time. I was wondering how many books I'll have to purchase to learn back-end development. Confused!