A:
I’ve been studying development for 5 years now. I’m really good with HTML & SCSS but not with JavaScript. I’ve studied JavaScript for many, many hours and I still haven’t mastered it. Little exercises here, long courses there, I’ve tried it all: and yet, I still don’t get it. I understand the logic to follow (for example, to create a drop-down menu) but I can’t create a functional script. Do you have any tips on how to finally understand JavaScript? I’m beginning to despair of ever understanding it. I’d like to become a creative developer later, and JavaScript is a must-have if I’m ever to realize my dream.
B:
It takes time, a lot longer than a lot of the posts you see floating around these subreddits would suggest. Where people claim to go from zero to hero in JavaScript in a matter of a few months (it’s definitely bollocks most the time). Usually rookies over extend their own knowledge a lot, but when it comes to actual practical application of those skills, they struggle.
My only advise having worked in Front End for around 10 years now… Just learn by doing. Just build stuff, fail at it, try again and keep going. Things will eventually click, and that’s coming from someone that has a really hard time when it comes to learning new skills.
Find ways of building things around topics you’re interested in, just to make the journey interesting along the way.
No harm trying tutorials, but don’t go too far down that rabbit hole. Because sometimes they can overwhelm you, and you never actually learn anything since you’re just stuck copying what they’re doing in a video and not actually retaining any information. I kind of like Wes Bos’s JavaScript 30 on the tutorial front, because the stakes are low, you don’t get overwhelmed and you practice lots of different concepts while building some dumb bits and bobs: https://javascript30.com/
