Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
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Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
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Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#2YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#3There is a finite amount things we know and an infinite amounts of things we don't. Hence trying to list ones we do not know is futile. :)
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#4YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
But you can also apply JIT to learning as well. Depending on your work, you may come across a situation that needs these things anywhere on the continuum from often to never. As the OP is a Facebook employee working as a core React team member, not knowing all these things clearly hasn't been a huge blocker.
But similarly, he might well know these things to an above-average level, and just think that he doesn't.
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#5YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
Well it makes perfect sense to me why React keeps reinventing the wheel every other version and why it's a hot mess. This video makes more sense now as to why they don't seem to have any direction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRo18pUs61Q. Frontend web development shouldn't consume braincells and React reeks of shortsightedness.
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#6YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
Well it makes perfect sense to me why React keeps reinventing the wheel every other version and why it's a hot mess. This video makes more sense now as to why they don't seem to have any direction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRo18pUs61Q . Frontend web development shouldn't consume braincells and React reeks of shortsightedness.
I have absolutely no clue what you're rambling about, but if frontend dev shouldn't consume braincells, you go on and code a complex frontend in vanilla JS and then serve that plate of hot spaghetti to the devs coming after you.
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#7This is a list of known unknowns. Those are usually not a problem - the problems come with unknown unknowns.
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#8YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
But you can also apply JIT to learning as well. Depending on your work, you may come across a situation that needs these things anywhere on the continuum from often to never. As the OP is a Facebook employee working as a core React team member, not knowing all these things clearly hasn't been a huge blocker. But similarly, he might well know these things to an above-average level, and just think that he doesn't.
Or just grinds LeetCode really well (or had a referral).
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#9YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
But you can also apply JIT to learning as well. Depending on your work, you may come across a situation that needs these things anywhere on the continuum from often to never. As the OP is a Facebook employee working as a core React team member, not knowing all these things clearly hasn't been a huge blocker. But similarly, he might well know these things to an above-average level, and just think that he doesn't.
"As the OP is a Facebook employee working as a core React team member, not knowing all these things clearly hasn't been a huge blocker."
In a practical sense that should be fine, given the level of specialization that a company like Facebook can have given its size and scope. But I wonder if Dan would make it through the average Facebook engineer interview without his Redux cred however.
He is also the rare person who is very honest about this kind of thing which is refreshing. For example he claims he only vaguely understands time complexity ("nested loops are bad").
I don't know exactly what point I'm making here, besides there can be a disconnect between a developer interview process and what people actually contribute. I think engineers should strive to be solid at the fundamentals, but at the same time there are very productive people who just learn as they go. Also, it takes a village so to speak, and over-optimizing for Comp Sci majors who drill LeetCode may not be the best long term choice for building teams either.
Re: Things I Don’t Know as of 2018
#10YMMV and I know I’ll be judged a gatekeeper, but not knowing: networking, modern CSS, some familiarity with SASS, CORS, basic deployment / platforms, and graphics APIs (!) all seem like pretty gaping holes for a frontend engineer - you’ll most definitely need those when building actual products for the web.
I don't think you're a gatekeeper, I just don't see the relevance to the author.
He's a library designer and is working with a team maintaining and updating one of the most popular Javascript libraries in the world. He has a very deep background in that language which is one of the most important skills for his role.
I don't blame him for not knowing some of those things you listed more deeply. There's only so many hours a day to dig deep into a wide range of material. You still have to spend time going into other material that might be more relevant to the day to day including testing, managing people, communication with team members, planning, etc. Yeah sure I'd love to be more knowledgeable about CORS or networking, but I also want to be much stronger in Javascript, the JS library I'm working on, design patterns, deployment, etc.
Lastly, I'd rather be in Abramov's shoes where my work profoundly influenced web development than be all over the place with my 'expertise' and not actually be all that impactful with my time.