3 takeaways from Dan Abramov's Just JavaScript course
Tags: javascript, beginners, programming, webdev
Published: 2021-12-06 10:41:32

A while ago, I came across _Just JavaScript_. I was intrigued by the banner image and its title: _Explore the JavaScript Universe_ but a little overwhelmed by the amount of text that followed if I'm being honest.
Nevertheless, I started reading and kept reading and reading. I was hooked, but hesitant whether I should pay for _another_ course that could potentially have me end up in tutorial hell 📚 

So I decided against taking that journey through the promising JS universe for now and went on with my life 👩‍💻

A few weeks later, however, a colleague mentioned the course and spoke very highly of it. I took it as a sign from the universe (pun intended) and signed up 🔥

While I won't go through the content of the course, you can read up on that [here](https://justjavascript.com/), I want to share what I learned from it and why I think it's well worth the money 💰

## 1. Mental models

Before starting out, I wasn't even aware of how wrong my mental models around JavaScript were. Dan Abramov and Maggie Appleton who did all the illustrations for the course did an amazing job at visualising and bringing to life a wonderful JavaScript universe as I had never seen or imagined before. It helped me immensely to correct my mental models and gain a deeper and better understanding of JavaScript basics.

So even though a lot of the content wasn't completely new to me, I benefited so much from it and came out at the other end with a much clearer vision.

## 2. Knowledge check
I don't know about you, but I have watched and read endless tutorials where I came out at the other end not being entirely sure if I really understood the content and it sometimes left me feeling more clueless and insecure than before.

With _Just JavaScript_ the opposite was the case. I finished this course feeling like I really understood the concepts, and the 10 quizzes like exercises after each module played a huge role in that.

## 3. Text over video
_Just JavaScript_ was the first course I took that was completely text-based and I was surprised how much I liked it if I'm being honest 💡 The length of the modules was perfect,  and the text was broken up with code snippets and  illustrations which made it much easier to digest 🍔

I always knew that I'd prefer reading over watching or listening, but this course made it even clearer to me that there's just something to seeing a concept black on white explained and being able to go over it again and again without having to press a rewind button 🎉


I'm so happy I took this course and invested in myself. I learned new things and corrected old mental models, I learned to think about JavaScript in a way I had never done before and so many concepts finally started to click 💥

And if you're still wondering if this course is for you, let me say this: If you have read this far I'd say it is 😉

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_Cover photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@gferla?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Guillermo Ferla</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/universe?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>_