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Nico Zerpa (he/him)
Nico Zerpa (he/him)

Posted on • Originally published at nicozerpa.com

Why I don't like front-end developer roadmaps

Development roadmaps are very common among those who want to become front-end developers. However, they are freaking intimidating! Look at this one, for example.

While the authors of those roadmaps have the best intentions, they may actually scare people and deter them from actually starting their learning journey.

Another problem is that it makes people think that it's a completely linear process (i.e. that you have to master one topic before moving on to the next one). In many cases, that's not true.

It's OK to learn a topic only partially and then move on to learn another language or technology. Every piece of knowledge is a tool: the more tools/knowledge you have, the more things you'll be able to do. But this also means that you can already build things with the knowledge/tools you already have.

For those who are in their very early stages and want to become a front-end developer: I'd suggest to learn the basics of the following languages, tools, and libraries:

  • HTTP
  • HTML and CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Git
  • A front-end library or framework, preferably React because it's more widely used (and that means, there are more job offers)

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Top comments (3)

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lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

I wholeheartedly concur with this sentiment. Even more so, I find it more important to learn the concepts and patterns behind the languages than the full languages.

You can google all Date methods, no need to know them by heart, but you should know what an instance and a method is.

That's why I wrote about the concepts behind modern frameworks. I think that's a better use of one's time than learning two or three frameworks.

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jd2r profile image
DR

Good point. The most important thing to note is that knowledge isn't just about following a roadmap. It's about learning these basic technologies that you listed and becoming comfortable with them then moving to more complex topics.

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rickdelpo1 profile image
Rick Delpo • Edited

Yes u should have more tools in your toolbox. When learning Javascript, as a beginner, I recommend not jumping immediately into React. I wrote a piece on 17 reasons why I prefer Plain Javascript to React.

click here at dev.to/rickdelpo1/react-vs-plain-j...

ps: definately learn React but learn Plain JS first and u may find that this is all u will need for basic javascript. React seems too advanced for the rank beginner but it is required for academic purposes. U may never really need to use it. I dumped it a while back.