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Comment by ggregoire | Hacker News Reader

For React, why not just read the docs? You don't really need anything else.

The docs are great for a given tidbit, but for structure and "why" I personally don't always get that from the docs and I end up reading something from Kent that tells me why.

https://kentcdodds.com/blog/usememo-and-usecallback

Granted that's probably because on a good day my reading comprehension is not great and learning within a narrative works way better for me.

Kent's stuff is good but I have a niggle with him (and an annoyingly non-zero bunch of other bloggers): no publication dates on his posts. As someone who always makes notes of what I read, and who wants those notes to include publication dates, it annoys me that I have to look at the git source for a given blog post to find out when it was published. (Though at least with Kent I have that option...)

Web tech moves very fast. A good answer to a problem today will likely get superseded within a year. In such a context, dates become essential tools to help comprehend someone’s post.

This———^

Dates are in the RSS feed. https://kentcdodds.com/blog/rss.xml

The undated post thing is a huge pet peeve of mine (as are the relative time stamps, i.e. "2 days ago" rather than a real date/time).

it's on the very bottom of the post if you want it and apparently his posts are all on github which are timestamped as well.

So it is! I stand corrected - thanks! I am, however, still open to the possibility that I was right in the past, and that he recently added the dates. ;-)

The React tutorial is one of the best of the kind. You can go from zero to a reasonable understanding very efficiently.

I personally was able to finish a side project in reasonable time working only with react docs.

Yes. I 100% agree with you. For whatever reason most people almost alway look elsewhere for the thing while it’s right in front of them.

Sure, you're right. They are quite good. But just from my perspective, I've been a backend engineer for most of my professional career and wanted to pick up front end dev. With little javascript/html/css knowledge, I used a couple different resources. I'm still learning, but I've found that just the official documentation doesn't quite get you there if you want to get the full picture.

I've been working through the following resources with a decent amount of success I think:

1. Fullstack React: The Complete Guide [0] - a wonderful book with a bunch of practical applications to build

2. Learn CSS Layout [1] - A nice write up for understanding what CSS actually is doing

3. Mozilla HTML Reference [2] - Can't get any better than this documentation

4. Eloquent Javascript 3rd Edition - Book being discussed, really enjoying working through it.

Obviously, the React and Redux documentation have been great as well. I don't think that just those really give you the full picture that you need though if you actually want to build professional web applications.

Just another side of the coin, I suppose.

[0] https://www.newline.co/fullstack-react/

[1] http://book.mixu.net/css/

[2] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference

You’re absolutely correct and I don’t disagree. However I’d like to offer an alternative: unless you build a real world project you won’t ever feel comfortable with your learning. I used to be just like you, try to cover as much ground as possible through (explicit) knowledge (books, blogs, videos, you name it) but whenever I applied that to the real thing, turns out there was always something missing, that I didn’t plan for. (I’m assuming you value your time and try to maximize as much of it as possible) Now what I do: I still look for resources BUT those that cover the minimum required (THE FUNDAMENTALS) and build upon that knowledge through practice and better target research/reading.

For me at least, I learn a lot faster by actively doing something (i.e. working on a toy problem/algorithm) than just reading the docs.

I suppose the implication was that you read the docs as you build something — the proverbial learn on a "need-to-nerd-basis"

I'm the same, I can read 1,000 technical pages no problem and make you a great talk, but I'll remember nothing past a month (or 12...) if I don't actually use it.

The React docs are excellent. But many (if not most) other projects have woefully under-developed docs that offer confusion more than clarity. I wouldn't blame anyone for assuming that the docs are not the place to start for learning something new.

Nowadays if you face a tool with sparse official documentation or with total absence of it, it's probably better to find another tool or be prepared to learn from the source code.

Exactly. That’s one of the heuristic I use nowadays to filter things.

Does it have a good documentation?

Yes? Cool. I dive in head first.

No? Hard pass.

For me React docs look really great, but I don't get a lot from them, even though I'd say I understand JS. OTOH Python docs usually look like crap, but I get a sense of understanding.

That has a lot to do with the underlying language actually. This is purely anecdotal but react was the first framework I tried to learn. It was hard for many reasons. One Angular internship and one big vue project later, it was no longer hard. Everything just fell in place. It just clicked. The secret? My JS skills got way better.

Makes sense. It's probably my love/hate relationship with JS.

I’m personally a dig in the docs kinda person, but I’ve worked with plenty of people who prefer a tutorial with a teacher and projects.

Thought Leaders need to eat

Doesn’t the react tutorial end after what’s basically a hello world project? Some people prefer a lot more guidance than that.

No. They have a bunch of tutorials depending on which concept you want to learn.

Basics concepts - https://reactjs.org/tutorial/tutorial.html

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