Idk if this is the best place for this but after some serious mental health issues, an attempt at doing mobile app development, an attempt at writing, and unofficially giving up on getting a job, I think I decided I am gonna try to finally get into web development for real. I did really good with it in school(probably top in my class) and I just don’t think I have what it takes to be an app developer. I am more of a visual person and web development has a lot of instant gratification in that regard.

Also I tend to really enjoy doing it.

What kept me away from getting back into it was that I thought everything was moving towards React or another JS framework or people were paying peanuts for their nephew that is good with computers to make a WordPress site with a free theme and such. Also I get decision paralysis as it is and it seems like every 3 weeks a new framework comes out. I have decided on a language or a stack in the past just to turn around and have some programming nerd say “why aren’t you using dogFast.js instead for this or that?” Then I end up looking into dogFart.js and then shutdown. To fix this I decided to pick a framework and will mostly stick to it, but with a small caveat or 2.

The gameplan is that I am gonna focus on learning the ins and outs of React until I feel confident, and then if I end up feeling like moving to Nextjs is logical, I will probably go that route. But I’m not planning on building anything super heavy any time soon so React is probably good for me for now. I like the idea that Next is essentially full stack React in a nice package but I don’t really even know the stack yet.

I wanna focus on static sites mostly and try to get into freelance and React can do SSG, but it’s overkill. Next can do SSG and a little better but it’s also overkill. I was looking at Gatsby but then saw some people talking about Eleventy and Astro. After messing a bit with Gatsby and then Astro, I decided I wanna learn Astro. The idea is that I will probably mostly be doing Astro for static sites and hone my React skills for if I end up doing dynamic stuff. But there is another bonus. Astro is a SSG, and it’s really easy and so far nice to play with(also if you know HTML, CSS, and JS, you basically know Astro) but it has what they call “Islands” that allow for drop in code like React, JS/TS, Alpine, etc. And you can make a page that can actually handle all of them and play together. It seems to be basically a right tool for the job approach while still being basic web page stuff.

I have a course for React I am gonna try to finish up this week and 3 or 4 I am trying to decide on next. I am halfway through the Astro tutorial from the docs and it’s been a blast. I have another tutorial lined up just to drill some stuff home, and then I plan on working on a few sites just to play around.

Gonna try to stick to this plan while casually applying for jobs. I have potentially 2 or 3 people that might be wanting a website made and I can use that to fill out a portfolio.

Just hope I don’t burn out though.