Suggestions for learning JavaScript and React from scratch

[JesseSmith3rd]

Hello Cory,

Here's a little background. I have been trying to learn how to be a programmer for about a year now. I have been working mostly on concourse for integration and pushing application to PCF for about six months into my first year. I felt alone in my attempt to learn so I figured I would have better luck by going back to school. In school I took the following classes; Visual basic, C++, and Java. I took a course on Python (my manager referred this to me). I did this for about two more months because the classes are five weeks apart. I felt I would learn faster if I signed up for a boot-camp. So, I took a break from school and enrolled into a boot-camp from June to October 2017 and it was great. They taught the following; React 15.3 at the time, and K'nex, express, bookshelf, PostGres SQL, HTML, CSS, and this is where I learned JavaScript. Each course was about one week each except for React that was about two weeks. I thought the class would be totoally focused on just JavaScript before I signed up. But taking the class felt to me you had to have some sort of experience in order to learn it. I felt lost the entire time. The teachers did what they could for me however, it was a pretty large class. Now, I am at a point where I really want to learn. People have given up on me, but not me. I believe and know I can do it. This is why I am reaching out. I am looking for a mentor, you have a great reputation. I really want to use this to change my life. I want to contribute something to the world. I know that's a bit much. But it's the truth. It has been a crazy year. But I decided I am not giving up.

[coryhouse]

Hi Jesse - I admire your attitude! I can totally appreciate feeling lost in the React class. I often tell people that learning React requires a lot of up front knowledge in JavaScript - since React is so simple, most the concepts are actually JavaScript concepts. So if you were new to React, it's understandable that it was totally confusing.

The good news is, there are countless great free resources out there for learning JavaScript from scratch. And you can simply open up your browser's developer tools (hit F12 in Chrome) and start typing JavaScript in the console to see what it does. I also enjoy tools like jsFiddle and Codesandbox.

I know everyone learns differently, so it's important to figure out how you learn best. Me? I like to read a few blog posts and watch a few videos, then I like to take a working example and start fiddling with it.

Here's a great site for getting comfortable with JavaScript foundations. This site is a pretty quick read and once you're comfortable with what they cover there you're in pretty good shape.

After that, to learn React, there are countless course online (I have some React courses on Pluralsight too). But honestly, the React docs are excellent. If you read all of them and truly understand it, you'll be in good shape.

Hope that helps!

[KhalilMohammad]

javascript is sexy is another good resource

[JesseSmith3rd]

Hello Cory, and Khalil,

I appreciate the direction. I will check these sites out now. I appreciate this feels great talking about it.