Thread by @YDKJS

(thread)

I often hear people mention they read straight through the @YDKJS book series. Some try to binge the books in a week or two, others will spread out that reading over several weeks or months.

Others will tell me they stalled out because it was too much overload to read.

And I've heard others "criticize" the books as being too in-depth and thus too much for beginners to handle, especially if they're trying to read completely through from scratch.

I want to share some thoughts on what I intended when I wrote the series as a 6 book split.

First of all, those 6 books are the sum total of 20+ years of my experience and learning with the language. It would be ridiculous for someone to try to read it straight through and download all that same knowledge over a few weeks. No human can effectively do that.

Secondly, I never intended reading the books to be like a netflix binge-watching activity. You can read them however you find best works for you, of course, but I certainly never expected that people would approach @YDKJS in that manner. I definitely wouldn't.

The first title, "Up & Going", was added to the series later in the writing process, because I got some feedback from folks that the original first title, "Scope & Closures" jumped too quickly into the deep end (compiler theory!) and could scare new learners off.

So I added the "Up & Going" book specifically as an onboarding to the series, a ramp-up to getting the most out of the @YDKJS books. Actually, my editor was pretty skeptical that this book would "work", but I was convinced it needed to be added.

So... my plan with "Up & Going" was this:

* Chapter 1: onboard folks who've never done any programming whatsoever. I use JS as the language to teach with, but the focus is just on programming basics (variables, loops, etc).

* Chapter 2: onboard folks who know something about programming, but who don't really know much about JS yet. This is not an exhaustive exploration of the language -- that's what the series is for! -- but rather an overview of how JS is organized as a language.

* Chapter 3: onboard folks to the rest of the @YDKJS series. Basically, provide a guide map for the journey of exploring the rest of the books, to know what to expect, and some suggestions on what order to proceed and what to look for, where.

This "Up & Going" book is only a short ~80 pages. If you're decently experienced with JS, you could breeze through it in an hour.

But if you're new to programming, or new to JS, the meat of this book could and should take MUCH, MUCH longer to digest.

I envisioned a new learner to programming taking several weeks to process through (and practice, repeatedly) the content of chapter 1.

I envisioned a new-to-JS learner spending a couple of months processing chapter 2, and again practicing it a LOT.

And then chapter 3... well, that could be revisited as your field guide multiple times as you progressed through the other books.

In other words, I envisioned the one single "Up & Going" book, just 80 pages, being a months-long endeavor for many readers.

I don't think most readers "get" this.

I think most somewhat-experienced JS devs skip the book entirely, because it looks too basic.

And I think most newer learners spend only a few days at most on the book.

In my mind, this is far too quick for most people.

I think it's entirely possible that skipping or skimming the "Up & Going" book can shallow out your potential learning from the rest of the books by as much as 50%.

As for the rest of the books, again, I didn't envision you'd sit down and read "Scope & Closures" straight through and be done. I envisioned you would wrestle with that book for a month or more.

...that you would stop after each section of each chapter, and go look at "real code" and compare to what you were reading. That you would try each code snippet and practice, multiple times.

And at the end of this book, you would "take a break" to let those concepts sink in.

I envisioned you would then spend a month or more simply digesting and reviewing and re-reading the book, and trying to solidify those concepts in your mind, and applying them to real code.

Only after those things were solid, say 1-3 months in, would you tackle the next book ("this & Object Prototypes"), and you would break it down and consume it the same way.

That book is much meatier. You could/should spend 2+ months reading it, and another 1-2 reviewing.

And so on thru the series. If you approached @YDKJS this way, from "Up & Going" through to the end of "ES6 & Beyond", you could reasonably expect for that to have taken, on the low end 4-5 months, and on the high end, 12-18 months.

And then? Start over and repeat! More to get!

I can truly say that, if you just sit down and try to binge through @YDKJS in a week or two, or even a month, you... probably don't know @YDKJS and probably still don't know JS. ;-)

BTW, the title of the series, "You Don't Know JS", is a hint at my intent and my intended mindset for readers. It's not an insult.

It's saying, "I will never fully know this language, so I should adopt a constant 'what can I learn better next?' mindset."

You don't ever know JS, you only get to know it better, little by little.

No one finishes learning JS. That's not a thing. I've forgotten more JS than I currently know. I re-read my own stuff and re-learn and re-discover.

And indeed, no one ever really knows or finishes @YDKJS.

These books are intended to be your career-long companion and field guide as you keep going back and layering on more and deeper understanding of the language.

As you progress in your experience with code, the books have more for you to come back and glean.

I hope some of these thoughts are helpful as you consider your journey with JS. I hope @YDKJS continues to be useful to you, not as an event, not as completion, but as a process and aide.

(btw, here's a breaking news bulletin: work on second edition of @YDKJS starts next month, with hopefully all 6 books being revised and released before the end of 2019). :)