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I took the first quarter of the year to re-learn as much web development as I could as part of my professional development plan. I don’t think I will be a web developer but I know that as long as I want my work to revolve around the web, I would need to keep brushing up on these fundamentals. This is not my first foray into web development. I have dabbled a lot with it during college. Exhibit A would have to be this site you’re reading this post on. Another example would have to be my last blog post.

Content

1. Learning
2. HTML/CSS
3. JavaScript
4. Other Technologies
5. Summary

Learning

The main platform I used was The Odin Project. Fun fact: I had started on “TOP” just right around the time it started in 2014. It has since become one of the most popular learning platforms for web development.

For this round, I decided to brush up on the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I also refreshed my knowledge of GitHub and Linux. Learned new Command Line techniques and learned the basics of Visual Studio Code.

HTML/CSS

HTML and CSS are the two most important languages to learn for web development. There are many ways to get a site up and running without code but there’s still something to be said about hand-coding a page, no matter how simple. My biggest takeaway from this section was how to properly using CSS Flexbox. I don’t think this even existed when I first dabbled but it’s pretty fun to see just how far development has gotten. My favorite resource from this section was the inspiring work of Josh W. Comeau. His Flexbox guide is a must-read for anyone trying to understand it.

JavaScript

I’m not gonna lie, JavaScript gave me a little of bit of trouble. If there is one complaint about TOP, some of the materials it expected me to use weren’t necessarily in the reading, but I also understand that such is the life of the web developer, not everything is entirely given to you if you want to do it the right way (Hello AI).

I also learned a lot about how to use the console to debug and test my code. I do a bit of this already for web analytics but it was super helpful to just brush up on the basics. My favorite resource for this section would undoubtedly be the entire Chrome Dev Tools Site. It opened my eyes up to how good a well-managed web product could look like. Not only was the resource super helpful, it was also fun.

Other Technologies

Like I said earlier, I learned a bit about GitHub and Linux in this section as well. I used an old Lenovo ThinkPad and installed Linux Mint to have dedicated machine for this project. That alone was another fun learning experience. I can also now confidently say that I can do some basic file management with the terminal now, whereas I only really knew cd before.

Summary

Revisting some of these technologies was a fun side project. I don’t think I will proceed with learning the intricacies of backend development but I know I will run into them one way or another in my career. During this excercise though, I ran into AI agents such as Lovable and Bolt. It’s so insane how much AI has come in just a few short years. AI Agents creating a full stack SaaS complete with authentication, database, and even payment processing in a few seconds is insanity.

That may be the next project I try to tackle.