Give me advice
Hi i have 2 years sisce i started front end journey i learned html css javascript ,scss htmx ( and npm + git ) and currently learning three.js after that is tailwind and react.js ,here and then i do some projects but i find myself googling docs for stuff that i learned time ago is it normal ? + the feeling of whenever i think about offering my services that i am not qualified yet ? should i start and as they say learn in the process ?
(Picture is for attention only )
17 Replies
It's totally normal to google stuff you can't remember.
Being a good dev is not knowing everything by heart it's knowing stuff exists and how to find how it works
I google things every day and i've been in this career for over 10 years
Wow thank you for your comment
I usually don't have to google stuff, a lot of things get memorized if you do a lot of projects. Only things I haven't done a lot before or tricky stuff I have to look up. But usually it goes instant.
Also I don't think you should use tailwind when learning css, it's like you shouldnt learn react if you don't know vanilla js. These framework help and speed up work if you know what you're doing.
in my opinion it not about memorizing things, but understanding how HTML / CSS and JS work in general.
I dont remember every since CSS pseudo-class and their values off the top of my head, but I know they exist and have seen examples of them in use. I know how pseudo-classes work as a concept and if I think one might be useful I will Google it when necessary.
One thing you have to accept in this area is there will ALWAYS be something new. I've seen the jQuery --> Node --> Grunt --> Angular --> React in terms of JS and Bootstrap / Foundation --> Tailwind in terms of CSS. As long as you understand the cores of the languages learning a new framework is not too hard and you can use or not use it if you think it's worth it for a project
things that I google also don't tend to be generic searches like "how do I make an accessible form element" but more like "what are the properties for x" or basically any regex questions but not just "how to use regex" but specific to something I'm working on such as "what properties to use to filter out numbers from strings"
i generally use google or AI to assist my train of thought but 95% of the things i'm writing are from memory/experience
Just use AI for regex xd
Regex is the type of stuff AI is good at I think, cuz it's pretty regulated stuff.
lol i do use AI for that, but i'm generally very suspicious of any results no matter how premium the request was
I would not trust AI for normal code I will never trust it for regexp
There's more incorrect regexp than correct ones in the wild xD
i wouldn't use ai for this
I'm not on speaking terms with AI at the moment. I've learned that you REALLY need to be careful as it will LIE and tell you it did things it did not do. I've found it especially frustrating when trying to find matching DIV's on a very large static site. It tried to use REGEX but missed so much (AND NEVER REPORTED ANY PROBLEMS!!!). Anyway, thanks for reading this cautionary tale.
that's what people don't get: ai WILL lie
it's not optional
it's how it works
I think "lie" isn't the right term, it implies intent, but there's no intent. There's only a machine that plays pretend.
And there is no rules in that game.
it generates plausible garbage based on the prompt you're introduced
Its officially called "hallucinations". Doesn't like to say "I dont know" so just makes something up that sounds right.
But yep e.g. plausible garbage
i know, but i prefer to say "plausible garbage" to drill home that it is garbage output
hallucination is more used for when it makes up something that is visibly wrong, but it always makes stuff up, it just so happen that most of the time is correct or correct enought that you don't pick it up
but it will never be 100% correct because it's just probabilities and bad ones at that