Dear Friend,
Typically if you wanted to become a Full-Stack Developer you had to learn a bunch of programming languages.
Take for example if you wanted to create an entire application for the web you would have had to learn PHP, JavaScript and sprinkle on some administrative work using bash scripts to get things going for your project.
If you are a seasoned developer you might remember trying to put together a web application using JSP with Java.
Java on the server what could go wrong?
The Trend Towards Full-Stack Development continues and it’s not stopping anytime soon. Why is that? You see having the ability to work with a single programming language throughout your stack is really useful.
You avoid the context switching cost of going from one language to another
This might seem like a small trivial detail after all PHP is not that much different than JavaScript. Right?
Programming languages might not look that different but there is a PRICE to pay for this context switching of jumping from one language to another.
Imagine that you are having a conversation with a friend, and you are talking about how much fun you had on a trip that you just got back from.
You start by sharing the way you got there, the places you visited and the activities that you did but here is the gotcha you have to replace every fourth sentence with a sentence from a different language.
If you come from a background that welcomes these conversations this might not seem like a big deal.
Most of my childhood I grew up talking Chicano, or Spanglish
This Context switching is costly but if you are comfortable doing it, it’s no big deal.
Let’s go back to that friend where you are sharing your trip and start a timer for that conversation.
Go to another friend and share that same story but with a single language.
Do you see the difference? You should see a 2-3x magnitude improvement in TIME.
Context switching is taxing on our brains
JavaScript is The Ruler of All because it allows us to stay focused on our problem with one single programming language. I’m putting together a short webinar where I’m going to share with you how you can put an entire Stack together using JavaScript from scratch.
Talk soon,
Rick H.
I always had a passion for the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and I knew I wanted to do something to make a difference in the world. I just didn’t know where to start. I was an immigrant in a new country, grew up in a tough environment, and wasn’t sure how… Read More
