Simplification

While hooks and context are pretty complicated concepts, I can see how they will make life much easier in the long run with React. The amount of code using hooks and context is much more succinct and understandable to read. Instead of passing props from one component to the next, it takes the process down to just a couple of steps for the entire app to understand what's going on in each component. There's still a lot I have to learn on these topics, but I'm not alone in that.

Hooks are only about a year old, with context being used in hooks for even less time in that. Most companies haven't even started using hooks yet. That means that if I can get really good with these concepts, I will be on a level playing field, if not ahead of the majority of React developers. I have one more section using context, and actually this section will be a refactor of a todo app that I finished up yesterday. I will definitely need some more instruction on these topics to achieve an intermediate level, let alone mastery.

After doing some more research today, I think I've actually decided to go with "Complete React Developer in 2019" by Andrei Neagoie and Yihua Zhang. There is only one major project in this course, which is an expansive e-commerce app, but I think this could be good. I've built enough cute little apps now that I need to graduate to production-level apps with a lot of moving parts. These are the types of things that I would be working on a daily basis with, not a dad-jokes-app. There's nothing wrong with these smaller apps; I think they serve a great purpose for learning individual concepts and then moving on before you accidentally break the app. Building something like the massive color project is much more satisfying to complete because of the amount of time that goes into it and all of the cool features involved with it. I also really like Andre's style after watching the intro videos and I think I would enjoy following his curriculum. He has a few other courses on Udemy.com as well, so if I like this one, I can definitely explore some other options. I will either be doing this or working on the Advanced Web Developer Bootcamp, by Colt Steele some more. I may just skip to the React part of that course, but it's slightly outdated now, in that it doesn't even introduce hooks. Either way, at least I know what I'll be doing in the immediate future!

Until tomorrow!