Want to learn JavaScript? Watch and Code.
Are you trying desperately to learn JavaScript but are feeling lost or overwhelmed by all of the buzzwords, frameworks, and tech? Go for a walk, then forget everything and go Watch and Code; Gordon Zhu has your back.
A small bit about me: I’m primarily a C# developer, though I also have experience with C++, PHP, and Python from when I was a young lad (11–13). I also have some experience with JavaScript, but, until now, my JavaScript path has been dark and twisted, like I’m certain thousands of other coders’ paths are at this point: Barely learning the language and then being thrown into, for lack of a better term, framework hell… In hopes to rush out in the market, nab a job, and hopefully succeed with JavaScript and coding.
Not even having practiced manipulating the DOM with basic JavaScript functions or even having learned proper design patterns and basic separation-of-concerns before being told to learn (or not even…. Just being taught without proper explanation of the differences even) jQuery, Bootstrap, React, Angular, etc… This left me confused, and it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. So bad that I went and learned C# simply because of my C++/PHP background and for the fact that the learning path was more defined… I didn’t have people pressuring me to learn 5,000 frameworks on week 1. Tools like jQuery and Bootstrap seem all fine and good, and even empowering at first, but when you learn them without learning the proper language constructs and design practices, the knowledge gaps creep up, and when they do, trust me, they bite you in the ass bad.
Well, there’s now a clear solution: Watch and Code by Gordon Zhu. Zhu is a former Google Software Engineer and Product Manager who discovered that his love for teaching eclipsed even his love for programming, and thus decided to found his own program called Watch and Code. The website has 2 full-featured current paths: Practical JavaScript for beginners-intermediate and the Premium Membership, which Zhu makes very clear is for serious programmers who want to become professional software engineers.
The key phrase here is “software engineer.” Even in his free Practical JavaScript path, he has a ton of content that raises the student up proper… Even though Zhu doesn’t necessarily tell you the buzzwords at the time of initial learning, you are learning all kinds of amazing software engineering principles in the course such as: proper debugging (huge), Agile Development, Separation of Concerns, Don’t Repeat Yourself, and Model-View-Controller architecture. You are learning all of these things while building a real-world application and learning from the ground-up how real-world applications are conceived, planned out, tackled, and even refactored. In his Premium course, he teaches MVC more in depth, how to read, break apart, and work with other programmers’ code (also huge), Test Driven Development with Unit Testing, provides a slack channel for students to communicate with him and other students, and more to come. Zhu stands behind his free course content quality so much that in fact he requires that you complete it before you’re even allowed to sign up for the premium course.
Don’t get the wrong idea, Gordon still introduces and has you working with frameworks as needed, but:
The difference between Zhu’s course and the others is that Zhu addresses software engineering from the ground up so that you won’t have strange knowledge gaps because you learned Angular before you learned basic software construction and design principles. Knowing the basics, you will know all of what Angular is doing or have the skills to find out for yourself the parts that are not clear to you.
And the best part about it: He makes it just as easy, if not easier, to learn and follow along, than the other more lackluster courses out there. Except with this course, you will have the confidence and skills to work with any JavaScript application out there as well as pick up any framework. Plus, you won’t feel like you just got bent-over dropping $12,000-$20,000 on a bootcamp, only to have giant knowledge gaps after you get that job the camp promises “oh so quik.”
I don’t often write reviews like this, but I know a gold mine when I see one, and I am now a proud student of Gordon Zhu’s… Having the experience that I do with the other languages, having learned and implemented unit testing and design patterns such as repository, unit of work, dependency injection, etc… in C#, I am very impressed with and am learning a ton from Mr. Zhu both in terms of general software engineering as well as JavaScript language-specifics and I highly recommend his course, you won’t be sorry.
Oh, and one last thing. A common problem with online courses is lack of communication from the teacher. Not so with Watch and Code. Between the weekly Office Hours posted on the Facebook Group , the comments sections of each lesson, and the Slack channel, you will find all of the help you need from Gordon himself and fellow students. Gordon has responded to me several times within the hour on the same day. He truly cares.
But don’t mistake caring for “being nice all the time” — Gordon will kick your ass where he sees you need it in order to make you more successful and a better software engineer. This is the best thing a student can ask for.
Links:
Practical JavaScript — Course for beginners to intermediate
Gordon himself explaining the importance of learning core engineering principles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PodF9bCa2ZM
Am I too advanced for this course? — Gordon explains
