Carl Anderson
Break out of Tutorial Hell - What to Do When You're Going Nowhere
Insanity and tutorial hell is endlessly repeating courses and expecting something different. It doesn't work. Find out how to break the cycle.
Carl Anderson
Beginner
No, People Aren't Learning to Code in 3 Months
At the start of your programming journey, it's natural to wonder how long you need before you're up to scratch. Does it really only take 3 months, or is there more to the story?
Career
How to Apply for Jobs as a Self-Taught Software Developer
You've been diligent. You've spent a few months (or years) grinding out code in your spare time. Dozens upon dozens of brain-melting hours doing coding problems. It's finally time to take the first steps to your new life as a Software Developer. You prepare your resumé, and make some applications.
JavaScript
How To Do CSS Transitions With Height: Auto
Creating a smooth expand/collapse animation seems easy. Surely you can set a transition on height: auto, and it'll just work? Sadly, the CSS gods aren't so kind. Instead of the smooth open and close you wanted, your element flashes to its new height. No smooth animation. As it turns
Basics
How to Quickly Add Inline CSS Styles Through JavaScript
If you've ever tried to modify your inline CSS from JavaScript, you'll notice it can be quite verbose. // Don't do this const button = document.querySelector('#button'); button.addEventListener('click', () => { button.style.border = '1px solid blue'; button.style.borderRadius = '2px'; button.style.color = 'white'; // and so it goes }); It's dirty,
Beginner
3 Methods to Actually Remember What You Learn in Coding Tutorials
When you first deal with a new topic, coding tutorials are great. Rather than continually grasping at straws and struggling your way through a project, the instructor conveniently shortcuts all this pain - all you have to do is follow along. After several hours of painstaking copying, you have a
JavaScript
The Danger of Specializing Too Early
I want to become a Full-stack dev, but I'm not very good at Front-end. Should I just become a back-end dev? - A total beginner When you're learning to code, you're working with a goal in mind. You're not trying to learn to code, you're trying to become a developer.
How to self-teach JavaScript
There's no denying that self-teaching JavaScript is difficult - although you have the benefit of always working on areas that interest you, it can be difficult to find direction in your learning. You're continually asking yourself: are you're doing the right thing? Is there something important you're missing? What are
Beginner
When Are You Ready to Freelance as a Front-End Developer?
When can I take a full front-end web project and start working as a freelancer, and how much knowledge do I need? A newbie developer asked this in the JavaScript Facebook group – and it's a good question. After all, when you've been grinding out several months of online courses, a
Beginner
How to Get Past JavaScript Tutorials: Copy & Paste
"I can follow the tutorial perfectly, but when I try to do it by myself, I have no idea I'm doing." Sound Familiar? It's one of the most frustrating situations you can experience as a developer because... what do you do? You were trying to learn how to create projects,
Practice JavaScript by Breaking Things Down
The most important skill you can have as a developer is knowing how to break tasks down - and it's a skill you can practice without a computer. As a beginner developer, one of the most frustrating situations you'll encounter is attempting to complete a simple task, but you have
4 Mistakes That Are Getting You Stuck Learning JavaScript
When learning to code, you expect to struggle. There's a lot to learn, and it won't all come easily. All you need to do is put your head down, work hard, and chip away at the difficult places bit by bit. But what if you've been "chipping away" for weeks
How to Write JavaScript When You Don’t Know Where to Begin
Have you ever tried a coding problem, but ended up staring at a blank editor? Maybe you tried to write a simple function, but didn't even know where to begin? It's frustrating. After all, you've spent months working to understand JavaScript's basics. You've learned all there is to know about
7 Pieces of Bad Advice for JavaScript Beginners
Let's face it - not all advice is helpful, even if it is well-meaning. As a beginner, you're especially vulnerable. It's hard for you to tell the difference between the advice which will save you months, or cost you years. You could avoid taking any advice, but the reality of
3 Techniques for Maintaining Your Sanity Using "This" in JavaScript
Of JavaScript's many confusing aspects, the keyword this can be one of the most complicated -- Here's a joke about the troublesome keyword: Sometimes when I'm writing Javascript I want to throw up my hands and say "this is bullshit!" but I can never remember what "this" refers to — Ben
How to Find Ideas for Good Practice Projects
Nothing is more discouraging than having spent months of effort learning JavaScript, reading dozens of articles and books, grinding through countless lessons and tutorials, only to have no idea how to do any of it by yourself. It turns out that those courses you took didn't completely prepare you to