--- title: If I Had to Learn JavaScript Again: The Real Journey... description: A developer shares their 8-year journey learning JavaScript from 2017 to 2025, detailing the messy, non-linear path from HTML/CSS basics through a CCNA... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: If I Had to Learn JavaScript Again: The Real Journey From 2017 to Today | daily.dev og:description: A developer shares their 8-year journey learning JavaScript from 2017 to 2025, detailing the messy, non-linear path from HTML/CSS basics through a CCNA... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PcwCleKUK.png og:image:alt: If I Had to Learn JavaScript Again: The Real Journey From 2017 to Today og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # If I Had to Learn JavaScript Again: The Real Journey From 2017 to Today **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · 16 min read · 92 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary A developer shares their 8-year journey learning JavaScript from 2017 to 2025, detailing the messy, non-linear path from HTML/CSS basics through a CCNA networking detour, to building production apps with React, Node.js, and TypeScript. The post provides honest insights about what actually worked: building personal projects, reading others' code, deploying everything, and spending thousands of hours coding. Includes a practical month-by-month learning roadmap, curated resources (javascript.info, Matt Pocock for TypeScript, YouTube channels), and uncomfortable truths about imposter syndrome, job hunting, and the reality that learning never stops. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@claudette** · 1 upvotes > Thank you so much for this **@telvinteum** · 1 upvotes > Consistent **@georgeongoro** · 0 upvotes > This really resonated, especially the part about university years feeling abstract compared to the 'aha!' moment of actually shipping code. It’s funny how a detour into something like networking or the CLI can suddenly make the whole 'black box' of programming start to make sense. > ​I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with Next.js and the TypeScript ecosystem, and your journey is a great reminder that even when things feel messy or non-linear, every 'failed' experiment is just building that mental model we use later. There's a huge difference between following a tutorial and actually... ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why I Am Starting To Write](https://daily.dev/posts/why-i-am-starting-to-write-4ejeqsg5j) · Medium · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [30 Years of
Tags](https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-br-tags-okytoh59c) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#javascript](https://daily.dev/tags/javascript), [#react](https://daily.dev/tags/react), [#nodejs](https://daily.dev/tags/nodejs), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#typescript](https://daily.dev/tags/typescript) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"If I Had to Learn JavaScript Again: The Real Journey From 2017 to Today","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk"},"datePublished":"2025-10-27T20:42:14.372Z","dateModified":"2025-10-27T20:42:41.049Z","description":"A developer shares their 8-year journey learning JavaScript from 2017 to 2025, detailing the messy, non-linear path from HTML/CSS basics through a CCNA...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/af8316305f50e4b9b5f1bc09f49382ab?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/af8316305f50e4b9b5f1bc09f49382ab?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"DEV","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"DEV","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/devto","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/devto"},"commentCount":3,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":92},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}],"keywords":"webdev,javascript,react,nodejs,productivity,typescript","timeRequired":"PT16M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DEV","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/devto"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"If I Had to Learn JavaScript Again: The Real Journey From 2017 to Today"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/if-i-had-to-learn-javascript-again-the-real-journey-from-2017-to-today-pcwclekuk","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Thank you so much for this","datePublished":"2025-11-13T05:15:40.568Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/PcwCleKUK#c-5o7irGDe7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Claudette","url":"https://daily.dev/claudette","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--XETtmu2---/f_auto/v1768495176/avatars/avatar_kHOkBMuMUz4W1VBvtNmLd?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Consistent","datePublished":"2025-12-08T21:03:47.216Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/PcwCleKUK#c-V23r64xub","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"TELVIN TEUM","url":"https://daily.dev/telvinteum","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--Xm3EENwc--/f_auto/v1764264817/avatars/avatar_fHXKQsFKEpHqADEmpsXk2?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This really resonated, especially the part about university years feeling abstract compared to the ‘aha!’ moment of actually shipping code. It’s funny how a detour into something like networking or the CLI can suddenly make the whole ‘black box’ of programming start to make sense.\n​I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with Next.js and the TypeScript ecosystem, and your journey is a great reminder that even when things feel messy or non-linear, every ‘failed’ experiment is just building that mental model we use later. There’s a huge difference between following a tutorial and actually wrestling with a database or a UI until it clicks.\n​Thanks for being so transparent about the grind it’s the kind of reality check the dev community needs more of!"","datePublished":"2026-01-26T07:34:45.183Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/PcwCleKUK#c-rDOB92Xcf","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"George Ongoro","url":"https://daily.dev/georgeongoro","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--jXl_MleY--/f_auto/v1779359556/avatars/avatar_JCfNZtLPNzTFifdLCBjRk?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"}}]} ```