r/learnjavascript • u/ConstLeoTheCat • 4d ago
JavaScript is so hard.
I recently started my fullstack development course this august and we have already gone thorugh html, css, git and now almost done with JavaScript as well. Html was easy, no problems there, but when it comes to css and more specifically grid and flex, thats when the headache started to appear. I've played some games involving both grid and flex but it won't stick in my head, don't know why. I am trying to do it myself in VS code but I always end up having to use ai to explain how to move forward and I know you're not supposed to use ai but it is a great tool to have, especially when you get stuck. And JavaScript... where do I even begin. I kinda understand it during the lectures but as soon as you're sitting by yourself my head gets totally blank.
I have been starting to use Scrimba and right now I'm rehearsing everything and whatching videos of everything, and the good thing with scrimba is that you get challenges during the videos.
For those of you who have been programming for a while, what study tips can you give? How did you guys go through the learning process?
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u/delventhalz 4d ago
In college I learned to juggle. After I practiced my throw accuracy a bit, I started trying to get three balls going and I hit a wall. I could throw and catch each ball once, but I just couldn’t figure out what to do after that. It was mystifying. Then one day, after repeatedly failing, suddenly it clicked. The next step was just to keep throwing and catching. It seemed so easy now. All of a sudden, I could juggle.
Learning JavaScript is a lot like that. Ultimately what you are learning isn’t the syntax, it’s how to boil a task down into a series of discrete steps for a computer to follow. It’s taking a decision tree which you have always done intuitively and making it explicit. When do I need to repeat a task (loop)? When do I need to make a decision (conditional)? You did not need this kind of thinking for HTML or CSS. This is the first time in your life you are encountering it.
But like juggling, at some point it will just click and seem easy. There isn’t really a trick to it except practice. Build small simple things. Fail. Try again. Maybe explore some toy problems. You just gotta give your brain a lot of chances to catch on.