How to learn Javascript if you've never programmed before

Table of Contents

The why
The how
The goodies
The goodbye

The why

Welcome once again to 404answernotfound, the blog that shares the secrets of the wizarding world.

Take a sit and relax while we ask a very weird hat to mix you in medieval college dorms for the next seven years.

Oh, shit, that was the other blog. Ahm. Welcome to 404answernotfound, the place where you can learn Javascript for free at any time without feeling like the world is against you and you are the only dumb person in the room.

I get it, really. If you are not coming from an engineering background or computer science studies it can surely feel daunting at first to approach a world so different from what you may had to deal with up until this moment. I'd like for you to read this paragraph again because I want to make sure you understand the relevance and importance of the wording here.

I didn't say a world less difficult, I explicitly said a world so different. I want to make sure you understand this because this is the first step you need to take to realize that programming, be it with Javascript or any other programming language, is but a tool in your belt, a new shiny one, but still in your belt.

Take a deep breath and relax because you are gonna be mindblown. You've always worn the belt.

Yeah, that's it, that's the big leap: understanding that a tool without a belt (your will to learn and use the tool), is just another toy lying around.

Sure, sometimes you might feel overwhelmed with all the information you are going to learn, but don't let that scare you. You might read senior engineers posting really weird lingo and difficult algorithms. Well, guess what. They are seniors, they've been playing at this game for quite a while more than you have. Let the monsters fight the monsters, for now, and one day you might be the one battling on the same ground!

Have you taken all that very philosophical truth inside of you? Great. Let' move and learn some f**kin programming.

The how

Let's get our hands dirty with some very deep and important lessons:

you have your own way to learn new things and retain them

F&%k the Gurus, F&%k this blog, F&%k me. There's no right and best way to do this. There's you and there's the will to learn and do whatever makes you feel like you are achieving something.

What I'm trying to tell you is this:

of course you are gonna have to find a method to get into this very awesome world but you shouldn't let this overwhelm you or else you might become afraid and refrain from persuing what you are actually having fun with (or else I guess you wouldn't be here).

There are so many wonderful people over the Internet that are willing to help you get your first step into this welcoming jungle, you just need to take a leap of faith in yourself and get started with learning.

Here is a list of resources that I used to learn myself and that are being updated often:

My personal favorite is FreeCodeCamp where you can learn whatever you want from their very rich learning paths curriculum and also get a free certification and join a wonderful community of peers. CS50 from David J. Malan, Harvard professor, is also a very great way to start and it goes from the very basics (even binary counting with lights) to Web programming.

A few years ago you wouldn't have had access to this amount of free resources but now the possibilities are endless!

I started programming professionally 10 years ago and not a day goes by without thinking how happy I am for having believed in myself and for having a great family that also believed in me.

Programming has been one of the best choices of my life.

The goodies

Hopefully you enjoyed this article and are now more than willing to jumpstart your career in software development by putting in the hours and learning.

As I said, there are many people willing to mentor newcomers and listen to their worries. I am one of them, so, if you want to reaach out and get a free 30 minutes call over Zoom or Meet, feel free to reach out and follow me on Twitter where you can DM and ask for that slot!

Happy hacking!

The goodbye

I hope you found this article useful and to your liking and if you have any requests, drop a message on one of my social media accounts or open an issue/start a discussion on github, on this repository!