Code with Kristian • I make videos and write about software development and programming tools
What Materials I Would Use If I Started Learning Javascript Again
In this era of information boom the assumption is that you can pick up any skill(technical or creative) because there are a lot of materials available but It is quite the opposite.
In this era of information boom, the assumption is that you can pick up any skill (technical or creative) because there are a lot of materials available, but the reality is quite the opposite.
The difficult thing about self-learning in this internet age is the sheer abundance of resources (free, paid and 'freemium').
— Art Tatum (@timijobs) January 10, 2019
Here's where the work lies now today; separating the good from bad, useful from non-useful, bang-for-your-buck from downright-shit-value resources.
A lot of options/alternatives might lead to decision fatigue. This is where a lot of beginners waste time and may end up giving up on learning that skill. Maybe some of them successfully overcome decision fatigue and pick a learning material, but halfway through, they discover that the material is not giving them the knowledge they seek - here again is another point where they might give up.
In my process of learning JavaScript, my technique for filtering the good from the bad was to check the reviews for positive comments related to what I am looking for from the course/book. This will go a long way in helping, but this doesn't guarantee that it will offer you what you want.
In this article, I will be sharing learning materials (books & courses) that helped me learn JavaScript.
Codeacademy's Learn JavaScript Course (Free)
Codeacademy is an interactive website that teaches programming in different languages. I love their approach to teaching JavaScript, because they explain the topics and give easy-to-understand examples and tasks to complete before you move to the next topic, building on your  previous knowledge. I strongly suggest this course if you are just starting out with programming, because it is tailored for beginners and it gets you familiar with the basics.
Head First JavaScript Programming ($37)
This is my preferred book for reference, because there are a lot of examples and illustrations to get the message across. Usually, I don’t enjoy using books to learn, because I get bored of books, and most of them don’t use a project-based approach. Head First JavaScript Programming is not project-based, but they make up for that with a lot of examples and puzzles to help you get familiar with JavaScript.
JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development - Jon Duckett ($34)
This is a unique book, because it engages right from the beginning, building different things. This book offered me a unique experience, because before this, I hadn't really made anything with JavaScript and jQuery. I can’t recommend this book enough - if there is one material you should use out of the four I listed, this is it. I will advise you to read this book cover to cover.
Watch and Code - Practical JavaScript (Free)
This is a video tutorial that walks you through building a todo application (yes, another todo app). This is one of the best free JavaScript video tutorials out there. The instructor, Gordon Zhu, covers the building blocks of JavaScript that you will encounter a lot as a professional developer. He covers functions, arrays, objects, and loops while building a todo application. The best thing is that it’s not all about code - he also gives tips on refactoring, how to approach a problem as a beginner, and how to debug. When you finish this course, you should be ready to pick any JavaScript framework (😉 React) and continue your learning.
One thing I will suggest: don't worry about remembering the syntax, but make sure you understand the concept behind it, you can always Google the syntax, or head over to StackOverflow.