TL;DR
On the web, you can find millions of articles recommending you the best JavaScript framework to learn. I feel that the developers get more and more caught up in the framework mania, and get lost in the details. Even though the framework helps for building things more quickly, and it has better development experience, you should learn the pure underlying language first. Because learning the framework without learning the underlying concepts won’t make you a better developer.
The most frequent question I receive from my mentees is “which frontend framework should I learn next?”. On the web, you can find millions of articles and videos recommending you the best JavaScript framework to learn, like React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, etc. The array list is endless.
Also, these frameworks and libraries come with their specific way of doing things, and with any new update, I feel that the developers get more and more caught up in the framework mania, and get lost in the details.
In the past years, I believed that once I learn enough of these frameworks I would become an expert developer able to solve any issue. And I see this pattern in others, especially at the beginning of their careers. We are led to believe that expertise is like a shopping bag, the more things you add the better, but if you don’t add the fundamental grocery items, you can’t use others.
That’s why I am sharing this. Please, please, please, don’t rush to learn any framework or library built on top of JavaScript. Don’t chase the hottest new JavaScript frameworks or libraries. First, invest your invaluable time in understanding and focusing on the engine: the core concepts and Javascript principles.
I’ve been working with React for the last five years, and I am still using it today. It definitely helps for building things more quickly and it has better development experience, but in the end, the quality of your application doesn’t depend on the framework or the library itself but on how you make use of it. And for that, you need to understand the underlying concepts, because many frameworks and libraries started out as someone’s way to save time. It’s their own abstraction, but they knew the pure underlying language first. Should I learn the fancy frontend framework before JavaScript? The answer is No. It won’t make you a better developer.