GraphQL, Gatsby, and beyond

I've gone through a lot of different stages in the last couple months. I spent about a month or so recently going deeper into JavaScript and learning some of the more complex topics on this language, and that really paid off. I got sucked into the backend after watching a couple tutorials by Jem Young on Frontend Masters, and learned a lot more about how the backend works, along with NodeJS. I then started really getting back into React when I built my portfolio. This forced me to learn some things I was still very fuzzy on. Since then, I've been striving to learn the more advanced topics associated with React, including Redux, hooks and the Context API, GraphQL, and Gatsby. After watching a few of Jason Lengstorf's videos, I've become completely fascinated by Gatsby, and I really want to be able to work inside of this framework. Gatsby relies heavily on GraphQL, so I knew if I wanted to learn Gatsby, I would need to start there.

Today, I started and finished a course on Frontend Masters by Scott Moss called "Introduction to GraphQL." While this was a great course, it left a lot of questions unanswered. Scott is a great teacher, and he's very knowledgeable, but sometimes he assumes a little more knowledge than might be the case. I had taken a course of his on NodeJS a few weeks ago, and I felt the same way. I was able to comprehend this one a little better, but I don't feel like I know everything there is to know about GraphQL now, or even that I could go and build something with GraphQL. So, my next step is to either look for a course or tutorial on Gatsby or another one on GraphQL. Either way, I'm more comfortable with GraphQL than I was when I started this course, but I still have a lot to learn.

These are all really hot technologies right now, and they're very much in-demand at the moment. Unlike other technologies, these are definitely here to stay, and the ecosystem around them is growing by the second. I think it was a really good move to start going down the React road, and I'm now in the intermediate-level with it. When looking at more complex React code, I'm still somewhat lost, so there's a lot I need to learn, but my recent studies on hooks is really going to pay off. Not to mention, the fact that I have a better grasp of JavaScript makes using hooks a lot more possible than it used to be. If I had tried to learn hooks a month and a half ago, I would have been completely lost. While I'm off work, I'm trying to take advantage of my time as best I can, staying up later than normal and coding whenever I have a free minute to do so. I would love to start another project, but I really haven't had any great ideas of what to do lately, so I'll stick to trying to soak up some knowledge and hope that inspires me to build.

Until tomorrow!