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Henrik Christensen
Python Web Development Techdegree Student 38,322 PointsFeels like I'm stucked
Hi,
I've been learning html, css, JS and jQuery for ~3-4 months now. The html and css part was very easy but I'm struckling with the JS/jQuery. I know how to make variables, functions, objects etc., but my problem is that I've never really got that "aha" feel where everything just clicked and you just know how to use it on your projects :-/
I've been using Treehouse, freecodecamp and codecademy.
Now I'm thinking maybe it would help if I got some inputs from other about "when and how" they got that "feeling"...
So that's my question for you guys: "When and how" did you get that "feeling"? :-)
3 Answers

rishabhahuja4
Courses Plus Student 91 Pointsin reality all of these tutorials like teamtreehouse, codeschool etc do not help because in real life situation is different coz they follow a set pattern , only solution is go and learn from a real individual or work under him

akak
29,446 PointsFirst: For me it took 9 months to get 'aha'. I think after 3-4 months it's OK not to be confident in JS yet.
Second: Apart from tutorials that show specific usecase - read a book or watch a video that explain inner workings of JavaScript. I know it's boring. But study it cerfully - if you have, read the same page a few times. I had to. But turns out theory is very useful. I avoided it for some time but it turns out that was the reason why I didn't get the 'aha' moment. I saw tutorials that show something, and explain basics of it, but you need to read some more complex stuff.
Third: Try. Try. Try. Build your own stuff. Try to change things in examples. Think how you can improve code you wrote. For me the breakthrough was when I decided to make a small game in JS. I just had some vague idea how to approach it. While I was writing it I had to learn a lot. For example: "Oh so I need to delay that action... let me see how to do that". And just because I wanted this game done I had to research and learn. It didn't help me with any framework or web-developement stuff, but it did help me with learning JS and how it works.

Michael Moffet
7,646 PointsIf all you do is follow along the tutorials verbatim, it probably won't click. At least, it never did for me.
Things didn't start coming together until I had to apply the principles that were being taught. You mentioned Free Code Camp, I really like their program for that very reason - they give you problems that you have to solve however you can.
With the treehouse stuff, don't just watch the videos. Dig into the concepts. Break the code and try to fix it. Take the final projects and recreate them on your own without the videos unless you get stuck. Or take the project from one course and do it in a different way (try the vanilla JavaScript project in jQuery or Angular, etc). Add features beyond what is in the videos. Make an app out of it using Ionic or React Native.
However you do it, you have to start applying the principles instead of just following along. It's the difference between watching someone drive a car, and being behind the wheel yourself.