Learn web development easier by changing your approach to programming languages

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You may have come across Ruby on Rails, NodeJS, AngularJS, Javascript, and perhaps the “MEAN” stack (MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, and NodeJS) when researching different programming technologies. Newcomers will often gravitate toward learning only Javascript. While it is a single programming language, it’s often mistaken as a shortcut to becoming a full-stack web developer. But the MEAN stack can provide simpler solutions to a wider variety of problems.

Deciding on which programming language to use and how to branch out to become a full-stack web developer can be tough. Even though we’ve created an introductory course on the topic, people still frequently ask me questions like:

“If I learn Javascript and not the MEAN stack, will web development be 4x easier for me? If I focus my time on Javascript, will I be 4x better than any developer who uses the four technologies in the MEAN stack?”

It seems intuitive that we would be 4x better off as a full-stack Javascript developer, but this is a common misconception. Let’s explore why.

What do we need to learn?

Domain-specific knowledge

Learning Javascript alone is not a fast track to full-stack web development. Learning only a programming language’s syntax (aka domain-specific knowledge) doesn’t mean we’ll become a better full-stack web developer. Domain-specific knowledge alone will make skill progression only a negligible amount easier in the grand scheme of any developer’s career.

There is a better approach.

Procedural knowledge

The smart way to becoming a full-stack web developer is by first learning how to figure out the things that we don’t know (procedural knowledge) and how to teach ourselves foreign concepts. If we want to make long-term decisions that will benefit the growth of our developer careers, we need to think about programming languages differently. We want to find the best tool for the job and evaluate different technologies based on their merits.

Here is a helpful analogy that we can use to understand the types of problems we face in web development:

How do we build a bookshelf?

• Using many tools: We can use a saw, a hammer, some glue, and nails. A drill can come in handy too, depending on the blueprints we’re using.
• Using one Tool: Or, we can just use a hammer. Instead of cutting the wood with a saw, we can use the opposite side of the hammer to cut the pieces of wood. We can then connect the pieces by hammering nails in. Let’s also avoid using blueprints because that will mean learning how to use a new tool.

Where do we start?

Key concepts

Front-end development

Database systems

Back-end development

Which programming language do we use?