How to independently learn web development

At the age of twelve, after I discovered the Save As Web Page function in Microsoft Word, I began to master web development. I first learned HTML, then CSS and JavaScript, and then picked up a little bit of PHP and Rails (today I like Meteor). All these years I have been thinking about getting a formal education, and I even saw some advantages in it, however, in the end:

1. It was too expensive.
2. It is quite difficult for me to get an education in the format of an academic audience.
3. I have already achieved quite a lot at that time.

But it was not always easy and simple. I didn't just learn how to write code. I learned how to learn, and that will be the topic of today's discussion. Here I brought five steps of how to learn web development.

1. Limit an interesting area of ​​web development
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You can not just take and "become a web developer" by reading a certain book or watching a certain number of videos. Web development is a vast area, and attempts to become an all-rounder in it just squeeze all the juice out of you, leave it at the back of the trough, and you’ll be far from learning how to get started.

Being a web programmer is something like being a scientist. There are fundamental ideas that apply in all disciplines, but you really need specialization. You will have to choose one area for yourself - it is much easier to master new areas after you have mastered one of them - but you will not be limited by your choice. A person deeply familiar with PHP can do much more than someone superficially familiar with a dozen of the most advanced web technologies.

From this point of view, however, there is no universal solution. Once you are familiar with HTML and CSS, just choose what interests you. Maybe you need to find out how your favorite websites were created. You will find that Rails is used almost everywhere, but the JavaScript shell also strengthens its position. I work with Meteor, as I like its properties in real time. Your thoughts are not important. Just try to follow your own interests, as only this will support your motivation.

If nothing particularly appeals to you, stop at the most popular technologies, such as JavaScript and PHP. For them, there are so many training materials that you will be amazed at the abundance of available support.

2. Ignore most of the “manuals” from venerable web developers.

Experienced web developers often with good intentions offer recommendations for beginners who have absolutely no practical use. The reasons for this are as follows:

1. Do not forget that you are a novice.
2. From the one who just started to grasp the basics, it takes too much.
3. There may be preferences based on problems you may never encounter (for example, scaling to millions of users).

Ask, for example, which language you should start to learn, and the debate that follows will have nothing to do with what is best for you. This will be a dispute based on preconceived opinions that have developed among the developers during their work.

And now how I see it:

It doesn't matter if you start learning PHP, Rails or JavaScript, or anything else. Why? Because retraining from one language to another means absolutely nothing compared to the gap between not being a web developer and being a web developer.

There are experienced web developers with great advice, however, when they offer you advice, ask yourself: “Is this really the best way for a beginner to learn this process? Or maybe it’s just that the developer wants the newbies to learn so? ”

3. Ask yourself a clear (and doable) task

After learning the basics of web development, try creating something without books and textbooks. In general, this is the most effective method to:

1. Feel the joy of creation.
2. Discover gaps in your knowledge.
3. To study effective ways of solving problems.

It does not matter what you decide to do, but try to keep as little of the project as possible. If, according to your estimates, you need to spend several weeks to implement this project - it is too large. Make it smaller. You do not want the project to last painfully long.

Also make sure that the project has a final point. What properties should it have in order to be able to say that it is “complete”? You should know when you can relax and enjoy the work done (and this does not mean that the project is ready to be presented to the public, because there is no need to publish your creation).

In most cases, any project whose main task is to collect any basic data is the best way for a beginner to test their knowledge.

4. Aim for a clear daily schedule.

When you start to do web development, in some areas you are making great strides, however, there comes a time when your progress slows down, and this is the moment in which many new web developers give up and become discouraged.

This is because beginners usually enjoy the learning process when they reach specific grades. Moreover, these marks are unpredictable. After obtaining basic knowledge, you can not make any significant success for weeks and months.

There is, however, an alternative option:

Instead of focusing on reaching certain milestones, dedicate a strictly specific time each day to learning and practicing web development. At least twenty minutes is a good time to start, but there are no clear boundaries or requirements. Just estimate how much free time you can definitely and constantly spend on this business.

The trick is to comply with the time period, is the pleasure of the fact that you can constantly observe it. New horizons will open up before you as a pleasant addition, and not as an unpredictable goal.

5. Stock up enough educational materials.

You may have seen the Ira Glass video about writing code, in which he states that people "do a huge amount of work."

This simple belief leads to a state of mastery, and the idea is easily applicable to web development. In order to become a web developer, you need to write a lot of code, but many people do not realize that the code does not have to be your own. Of great importance is the following code, taken from books, educational materials and video tutorials - for example, as on the site SitePoint and in books and courses from sites like Learnable.

You have to stock up on material - and you need to be aware of the meaning of each line of code when writing it - but even if you just cram, learning moves forward.

What most people ignore:

Syntax is not the most difficult part of web development. This is the main trouble for newbies, but later the definition of a way of thinking that can help solve a particular problem becomes a bigger hitch. The biggest irony is that often beginners often offer a more comprehensive solution than professionals.

Considering the above, the advantage of following the instructions in a large number of educational materials is that:

• You can see how different developers solve different problems.
• You can see how different developers solve the same problem.

When you can finally work on your own project, this experience will give you the tools you need to:

1. Definitions of the core task.
2. Outlines in general what is required to solve this problem.

You may not have in stock exact solutions, but this is not important. Many tasks in one form or another have already been solved by someone earlier, and half of the problem “to express one’s thought in the form of a code” is to understand what you are trying to say. After you overcome this line, the syntax and all sorts of trivialities will seem much easier.

Conclusion

I just shared a handful of recommendations “in general” about how to get myself to learn web development, but these are really the things that I would like them to tell me when I started doing this.