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Your path will be your own, but here's what has helped me: Try Meteor (meteor.com). That way you start from a complete development environment, and you can focus on actually using JavaScript, as well as feel good about being productive. Bring in new libraries to play with using atmospherejs.com. Try to think of a small website that you can build (a todo list, a checkbook balance sheet, a notetaking app), so that you can have real problems to wrestle with and a real goal to strive for. Use Meetup.com or other community groups to find other people to talk with. Be honest about where you are at ("I'm a total beginner"), ask people about what they're working on, be nice and apologize for not knowing much. Be confident about your ability to learn. Talk about what you're doing. ("I'm working on a small pet project so I can learn"). Go into detail if you can. Be patient. Be persistent. Also practical. The JavaScript world is vast, you can't know about everything. Ask yourself, do I need to know about this cool library/technology right now, or should I spend my time doing something else, like actual coding? Think about the bikeshedding problem, i.e. "shipping" (finishing your project) is better than bikeshedding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_trivialit...) Read an authorative book on JavaScript (e.g., JavaScript: the good parts). There's no substitute. No website or blog article will get you familiar with the "deeper" concepts of the language. Don't worry if you don't remember everything, just try to understand each of the concepts and then plan on re-reading it again 6 months from now. Plan on reading more than one of these books. Have fun! |