Myths About Learning Web Development

Making the decision to become a web developer is both exciting and absolutely terrifying. Everyone has preconceived notions of what web development entails. Its not till you begin to dig in and read up on all the languages, all the tools and all of everything that you realize “Man, this my be harder than I thought!”. You’d would be right! Not necessarily because development is hard, but because learning requires consistent effort and persistance. On that note, lets dig into some of the myths of learning web development.

Coding is easy!

No. Sorry to burst your bubble so soon, but it’s for the better. Coding isn’t easy. Learning isn’t easy. Anything that requires any ounce of skill isn’t easy. And that is only going to benefit YOU in the long run. You’ll struggle to wrap your head around the box-model. Your eyes will glaze over as you’ll be in a stupor trying to figure out closures. What the heck is a “MVC”? While it might seem like the tires are just spinning in place, your brain is doing what is does best, and that is absorbing all this new and exciting knowledge. Easily one of the most motivational talks on learning comes from the fantastic Katrina Owen (@kytrinyx) on hacking passion.

The key to learning to code is to consistently challenge yourself and push the boundaries of what you don’t know. So yes, coding is HARD and you’ll learn to embrace and love every second of it!

Forget starting off with HTML or CSS. Dive straight into REAL programing!

HTML isn’t real coding! CSS should be left to designers! Blah blah shut it! I for one fell into this trap of thinking HTML and CSS where not nearly as important as real programming languages. I dove straight into JavaScript like a hotshot and when time came to actually use it, well let’s just say I had not a clue how to actually implement it into a working webpage! I couldn’t structure an HTML document for the life of me. Don’t even get me started with trying to create a layout in CSS. It was a disaster.

That’s when I realized how important HTML and CSS are to a web page. Without proper semantic elements how are screen readers going to convey the meaning of your content to someone with disabilities? How will you enhance the UX of your web app without knowing the differences between using a float for your layout or using display: inline-block. Every major piece of web technology deserves your full and undivided attention. Whether it may be HTML/CSS, JavaScript or Ruby they all have a place in your toolbelt.

frameworks. Frameworks? FRAMEWORKS?!?!

Nowadays it feels like there are more frameworks then actual coding languages. jQuery, Rails, Django, no stone is left unturned. You should learn them all. You should learn them ALL! Well, not really. Here’s the thing, frameworks can be a great help or they can be a crutch. For the experienced developer it allows them to quickly use a set of conventions for solving repeated problems. If they needed to they could code a one-off solution to their problem, but it is much more beneficial to contribute to an existing open-source solution that can constantly be worked on by other developers. For the beginning developer, it might help them to quickly develop and deploy a website or web app, but their knowledge of the solution as well as the underlying language is very brittle and all it takes is just one problem to arise that completely breaks the app and leaves them in shambles! Learning the language behind the many great frameworks will allow you to know the tools you are using as well as contribute to the advancement of the open-source community. Heck, maybe someday you might write the next great JavaScript framework! Just make sure its got some kind of catchy name!

There will be a point where you are no longer overwhelmed

Technology moves faster than copies of a new Taylor Swift album. There will always be new tools to use. New and shiny frameworks will ooh and ahh the development community. All the while you’re sitting in front of the computer getting cold sweats thinking to yourself “Overwhelmed! I’m getting super duper overwhelmed!”. Here is the secret that many developers fail to tell you. That overwhelmed feeling never. goes. away. You learn to use it to your advantage as a way to explore the possibilites of what can be done with the technologies at hand. The same way we crave the latest iPhone or Android device should be exactly how we approach new technologies in our field.

And lets be honest. Who doesn’t love the newest tech?