Self-Taught Developer

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  1. JavaScript

The raw truth about coding and survival. 🚀

On Being a Self-taught Web Developer, I get a lot of emails from people who are trying to teach themselves how to be web developers. 📬

Sometimes, they’re designers who want to build their own designs instead of relying on a developer. More often, someone is changing careers entirely. 🔄

"We’re amazingly fortunate to work in a profession where you can do this. There’s not a lot of self-taught lawyers or doctors out there." 🩺⚖️

Most front-end developers I meet are self-taught, including me.

It’s still a bit terrifying 😨

When you’re teaching yourself, and you see all the amazing things people around you are building, it can feel a bit intimidating.

I remember feeling like I didn’t deserve to “be here” because I don’t have a Computer Science degree. 🎓 Then I learned most of the people I look up to don’t either.

I’m 100% self-taught as well. I was an BH guy before this and learned web development by modifying my HTML theme (and then later building one from scratch). 🛠️

But… my code sucks! 💩

import * as web from 'blog';

Dervic.init({
    web: 'dervic.blog',
    blogVersion: 'v1',
    motto: 'This blog is the best!'
});

Here’s the thing: your code will always be terrible. Always! 🗑️

The code I wrote in my first two years is complete garbage. The code I wrote last year is a lot better, but still embarrasses current me. I’ll feel the same way about today’s code a year from now. 📅

The best way to get better at code is to write more of it. ✍️

Code a lot. Make mistakes. Fix them. Repeat. I had about half a dozen JavaScript projects done before I felt mildly skilled. Even today, I get bug reports for stupid things I wasn’t aware of. 🐛

You can absolutely do this. ✅

🐘You will feel like a fraud and a failure for a while. Thoughts? 💬 If you enjoyed this, let me know below. Ps!


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Thank you!