[polmolea]

Don't focus on theory, focus on what you want to build. Find a project that you really want to build and learn whatever is needed to get it built. Try to pick something non-trivial (a to do list is ok, but it will only get you so far).

JavaScript is broad, you can use it on the client and on the server. You will probably need to learn a front-end framework (just pick one, don't bother too much on picking the right one) - AngularJS, React are both very good choices. With this and some HTML/CSS knowledge you can build a pretty cool static app.

Meteor[1] gives you some server-side capabilities. The JAWS[2] framework does the same but in an AWS environment. I'm also working on a project called Sync Ninja[3] that will be like those two but un-opinionated (though it's not ready yet). You can of course use pure Node.js on the server if you want.

[1] https://github.com/meteor/meteor [2] https://github.com/jaws-framework/JAWS [3] https://github.com/syncninja/syncninja