Web Dev Resources

What I used, and am still using, to learn web dev

Thu Aug 26 2021

3 min read

I was talking with a friend yesterday about how I learned web dev.

They’re just starting out in University, and were surprised to hear that I don’t really attribute a lot of my technical knowledge to university classes.

With them in mind, I made them a quick list of the most notable web development resources I used to learn.

ℹ I’m still working on this one- it’ll be updated over time.

I may re-organize things to be more focused on the level of complexity than the format as it probably makes more sense for quick referencing.

Video Courses 📺

This is honestly where I’ve learned most of what I know in a “traditional” sense.

• Wes Bos’s Learn Node: Comprehensive course that goes over what Node is, how it works, HTML templating, basic JS bundling, etc.
• Wes Bos’s Advanced React & GraphQL: If you have some basic React knowledge, this tutorial takes it to the next level with Next.js, GraphQL, and friends!
• Level Up Tutorials: React, Svelte, etc: All of Scott’s content on Level Up Tuts is great!
• Free Code Camp: lots of really great courses (mostly on their YouTube channel) and even certificate programs!
• Kent C. Dodd’s Epic React: an extremely comprehensive course on react.js that takes you all the way up from fundamentals to advanced concepts.
• Kent C. Dodd’s Testing JavaScript: a practical guide on how to test JavaScript applications that takes you all the way from static analysis, to unit and integration tests.

Podcasts 🎤

I listen to podcasts to keep up on what’s new & upcoming in web dev, as well as a way to nerd out about existing tech I haven’t used:

• Shop Talk Show: Just! build! WEBSITES! Dave Rupert and Chris Coyier talk about web dev stuff from a down-to-earth perspective.
• Syntax FM: A relatively beginner oriented podcast hosted by Scott Tolinski, and Wes Bos.
• JS Party: Talking about Javascript and the web with a “party” of rotating hosts.
• Remotely Interesting: The Netlify devrel team’s podcast, they’re typically talking about JAMStack and a number of other webdevy things.

Projects 👩🏻‍💻

This is where most of my practical knowledge came from- and where I recommend people spend most of their time!

• Supastack: A mix between SubStack + Tumblr. It’s definitely not complete but gave me time to learn SupaBase & Postgres.
• Smolcart.js: A semi-finished library used for adding Shopify products to cart via Javascript
• Mykal.codes: This website! a blog- it’s been rebuilt 4-5 times in different frameworks (Next.js, Gatsby, 11ty, now Astro)

Books 📚

I use books more as a reference, than anything.

• Flask Web Development: I recently read this to learn about flask for work- it’s great! Walks you through creating a modern-ish web app with Flask.
• Humble Bundle Books: Humble bundle usually puts together some sort of developer book bundle. I’ve got around 60 books from publishers like O’Reilly through their bundles at amazing prices.
• Increment Magazine: A very high quality magazine about software development. Lots of varied, and well done articles from different disciplines of software (edit: rest in peace)

Miscellaneous ✨

Other stuff I use on a regular basis

• Mozilla Developer Network: have you ever wanted docs for like every web API ever? this is it!