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Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

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Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#241

Post by steve-chavez »

Thaxll wrote: post #190
emteycz wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a seasoned TypeScript backend/fullstack developer I don't understand - why is it such a bad tool, and if it is because of the tool and not the concept, it seems possible it will be fixed in the future - why is it a bad habit; I consider the boilerplate CRUD code I write to be a bad habit that I should've automated years ago, and that's exactly what PostgREST does - why can't you learn the basics of API services an…

It's a bad habit because of separation of concerns.

Check this thread[1] for a previous discussion about "separation of concerns" and PostgREST.

tl;dr: business logic can be done with views/sps on an isolated schema. More layers makes the overall OLTP system less performant and harder to scale.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21438307

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#242

Post by modernerd »

bszupnick wrote: post #57
_benj wrote: post #34

I'm a self-taught webdev too and I would strongly recommend learning SQL, not just `SELECT * ...` but really learning it! I've been digging into postgreSQL and in quite a few applications it's possible to greatly reduce the complexity of the backend by receiving exactly the data you need from the DB. It is so much so that in cases you can even "get rid" of the backend completely (yes, no writing controllers and endpo…

Any specific resources to recommend?

Execute Program has a great interactive course:

https://www.executeprogram.com/courses/sql

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#243

Post by brlewis »

fendy3002 wrote: post #234
brlewis wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TypeScript is the obvious choice for an experienced webdev. It's worth spending extensive time on to get good. Learn generics and advanced types to the point of not needing to look things up.

I need to mention that though TS is good, it's static typing is optional so op may find it different with java or csharp

Setting noImplicitAny should be adequate to address that. Java is getting type inference soon too.

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#245

Post by paublyrne »

erdos4d wrote: post #134
chrischattin wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% self-taught here. I change $150/hr for full stack Rails work and none of my clients have batted an eye at that. I’m thinking about raising my rates, actually. If you know what you’re doing, I can assure you, making money is not going to be one if your problems.

Wow, I must be a complete idiot with this stuff because I can't get people to give me even 150 bucks for a full website right now. How do you actually get these 150/hr clients? Please don't tell me I need to work in Silicon Valley for some years and get the "contacts", cause I don't want to live in the US anymore. Tell you what, here's my site: https://www.andeswebdesign.com , if you like it, just send me all your wo…

I think you don't want the kind of client who wants a website for $150. Good clients will be turned off by the low price. I'd try going for a less bargain basement look and pricing structure.

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#246

Post by thatcodingdude »

Thanks for all the great answers, they all helped me think about what I wanted to go for.

I'll be focusing on linux admin / devops / security and brush up on the parts I've missed (computer science basics / SQL / C...)

I welcome every course / book / resource advice !

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#247

Post by Ligrev »

linkjuice4all wrote: post #240
jameslk wrote: post #135

Web performance This is an underappreciated field that lends to plenty of consulting. As the web becomes more complex, with heavy frontend code, third party services, and demanding amounts of images and videos, it's requiring a deeper understanding about networking and browsers to keep the web performant. Compounding the problem is the growing number of users who use mobile devices to browse the web, which have large…

I just moved out of the ad agency/SEO industry (using a semi-burner account for that reason) and back into full-stack development. In the past couple of years I put a lot of effort into performance analysis and improvement (mainly site speed but other critical factors) but got very little buy-in from my clients. I was also looking beyond basic "SEO metrics" and the cookie-cutter output from Google Page Speed test and…

It's incredibly popular in the ecommerce world where every 1kb reduced is a lot. Target large ones - they often use Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Hybris, BigCommerce, Magento.

Also any business with embeddable products and SDKs. No one is happy to make their page heavier with a script they don't own. Fintech comes to mind. Analytics companies too.

Anything with complex dashboards. Anything tailored to power users - CRMs, help desk software.

Figure out your pitch too - your job may save server costs (and increase development costs but maybe don't mention that), optimize response time of employees, increase productivity, or retain shoppers.

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#249

Post by fortran77 »

davidhowlett wrote: post #212
thatcodingdude wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean ?

Every time rust is mentioned on HN people talk about how wonderful rust is. They are jokingly called the rust evangelism strike force.

Every time Rust _isn't_ mentioned, the Rust people turn the thread into a Rust discussion.

Re: Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What should I learn?

#250

Post by erdos4d »

paublyrne wrote: post #245
erdos4d wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I must be a complete idiot with this stuff because I can't get people to give me even 150 bucks for a full website right now. How do you actually get these 150/hr clients? Please don't tell me I need to work in Silicon Valley for some years and get the "contacts", cause I don't want to live in the US anymore. Tell you what, here's my site: https://www.andeswebdesign.com , if you like it, just send me all your wo…

I think you don't want the kind of client who wants a website for $150. Good clients will be turned off by the low price. I'd try going for a less bargain basement look and pricing structure.

I live with my wife and son in Ecuador and 150 is actually pretty competitive here. Our main competition charges 200 I think. But I agree with you that it is very low for the US/EU market.
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