Getting into the backend
There are so many areas to explore in the world of web development, and most developers spend their entire career focused on a tiny corner. With the popularity of NodeJS exploding over the past few years, more and more JavaScript developers are getting into the backend after specifically focusing on the frontend; the lines separating the two areas are blurring. It seems most jobs still only expect you to have proficiency in either the frontend or the backend, but I suspect that is going to be changing in the future. My belief is that, if you want to stay with the trends in the world of JavaScript, it will become ever more important to be able to work in both the frontend, with frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, and the backend using NodeJS. There are definitely other technologies you can use on the backend, but NodeJS is written in JavaScript, so it seems the correct path would be to become completely proficient in JavaScript so you could easily traverse between the two worlds.
Today, I've spent the last couple hours finishing up Jem Young's "Full Stack for Frontend Engineers" on Frontend Masters, which was an excellently put together course teaching an array of tools and technologies. I learned a lot in this course, and it was nice to take a bit of a break from my current challenge of mastering JavaScript. I've learned the basics of VIM, NGINX, Digital Ocean, Gulp, and a lot about the command line. I ran into a few snags that could have completely derailed me, but I was able to persevere. One of the best skills to have as a developer is knowing how to research your way out of a snag like these and properly use resources like Stack Overflow. There were several points where I almost gave up completely, but I really wanted to see if I could get through these spots and keep up with this course. Luckily, I was able to find the answers I need and keep moving forward all the way through.
It's just me and my daughter all day today, as my fiancé is running a wedding at the club she's working at. Right now, she's taking her afternoon nap, and she's been asleep now for about 2 and a half hours, giving me a lot of time to work on finishing that course and writing this blog. When she wakes up, I'll give her lunch and then we're running out to the store to do some grocery shopping for tonight's meal. I'm in charge of her bath time and getting her down tonight, so we'll see how that goes. Last night, me and the family went down to Main Street in our town to celebrate Halloween as a family of sharks, and we had a great time. The festivities ran a bit long and I ended up having to reschedule with my pair programming partner, Matt. Thankfully, he was understanding of this and we're going to do it tonight instead. I'm really excited to do this again with Matt; it was incredibly useful for me last week, and I think I'm going to learn a lot if we continue doing it once a week.
Until tomorrow!
