DonTheDeveloper Podcast
DonTheDeveloper Podcast
I'm Leaving Frontend For Backend
I'm done with frontend. It's time to become a backend developer, and here is why...
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I think I hate the JavaScript world and in my professional career I chose front end and I think I made the wrong decision. I've been thinking about going back into the industry for a while now and I want to talk about why I haven't. So I have worked front end for three different dev positions and then the third position was full stack and it was just full stack because I was, you know, in the GraphQL layer 20% of the time, but I mainly worked with front end. I mainly worked with React front end. I mainly worked with React and I don't know what it is, but I felt like I just got less and less excitement about building front end applications with React. I liked getting better with JavaScript. I like becoming a better developer as I dove deeper into JavaScript specifically.
Don Hansen:But I feel like the direction that React and the JavaScript world is going has been making the JavaScript ecosystem more complex to solve problems that it continues to introduce. I'm not interested in solving any more problems with JavaScript and React itself. Just it's just single page applications in general. I with how popular and hireable, like how popular React is and how hireable you are for like really getting good with it in front end. I just it just feels like React is used to solve every single front end applications problem. I feel like it has brought organization that a lot of front end developers have desperately needed and there are a lot of neat features that have come with it lot of front-end developers have desperately needed and there are a lot of neat features that have come with it. But I do feel like we keep trying to push something that is broken. I don't think single-page applications were meant to get this complex and again the complexity keeps coming from the drawbacks of single page applications where a lot of websites, like when you have to do implement server side rendering and proper hydration to be able to make React work for what mostly is kind of just like a lot of like static content mostly is kind of just like a lot of like static content. I feel like we just keep forcing React on every single problem that we have. Most websites don't need React and the conventions aren't even agreed upon in React, like it's just a library, it's not a framework, and Next and other frameworks have tried to solve that problem.
Don Hansen:But when I meet a lot of people that love Next, they're not really good with JavaScript, like a lot of new developers coming into the industry. They're not really good with JavaScript. Just their favorite content creator or Twitter told them that they need to be learning Next if they want to be hireable, which is entirely untrue. Very few jobs hire for Next right now.
Don Hansen:Compared to just using react, um, compared to other alternative solutions, next is not popular on the front end, not to the extent where, like you, should be dedicating all of your time just building shit with next, like there are a lot of really bad developers that are bad with javascript and they remain bad, but they're able to piece together an application. But that's the. That's like the culture that's been built around. The cult of next and even like tailwind is another one that just continues to get pushed out. So many people that just are obsessed with tailwind, especially new developers, are just shitty at css. They're just, they're so shitty. They don't understand semantic html, they don't understand accessibility, they don't. They just don't understand a lot of the fundamentals and the basics that so many good front-end developers really got a solid foundation with, and I think the problem with the JavaScript world is we keep introducing these really complex abstractions that most people are not going to have the time to dig into that are so complex because they keep solving the problems that single page applications keep introducing to every fucking application. I just like there is nothing exciting or inspiring about continuing to solve problems on the front end when this shit ball just keeps snowballing into something bigger and bigger and bigger.
Don Hansen:And that's how I feel about JavaScript and I've been thinking about going back into the industry with my professional front end experience. But every time I think about applying for front end positions I'm like I'm going to hate my life again, I am going to hate the problems that I solve and eventually I think I'm just going to quit again and, you know, go the entrepreneurship route, like really double down on that and continue building it up with affiliate links and content creation. And like I have ideas of other things that I want to do and projects I want to create. But man, like I want to love the idea of being a software engineer and I I just can't with front end anymore. That there's just something about it that is, it just kills my passion for this industry. But I have been working on personal projects for the past two years and Every single time I dive into the back end, that excitement comes back that I used to get and I'm building a pretty complex application that's going to have a lot of features.
Don Hansen:That is really like already starting to get a little bit more difficult to organize. But even finally scrapping Just Express and using Nest JS not Next Nest has made organization of my application fun again, organization of my application fun again, and I think it kind of just like makes deter. Javascript has become just a little bit more tolerable. It smells a lot less, but the problems that I need to solve on the backend when I like for the application that I'm trying to build for potentially, like you know, a hundred streamers with a thousand concurrent viewers and being able to process a lot of the events that I'm trying to build for potentially, like you know, a hundred streamers with a thousand concurrent viewers and being able to process a lot of the events that come through, like I'm seeing how bad my code is and how inefficient my code is, and the idea of just becoming a better developer, a better software engineer, to be able to not only maintain good organizations so I don't get lost in all of this but just become a better developer and learn better conventions and ways of doing things, more efficient ways of doing things and balancing a lot of the efficiency with readability and learning a lot of backend conventions. That is like the front end conventions. It's kind of like the wild west. You get so many front end developers that disagree with each other. But I feel like backend has just solved a lot of its problems and it's just a lot more agreed upon than front end. And I think the complications with front-end come because a lot of the solutions that front-end keep introducing just keep introducing more problems, a lot more problems. But I like the problems that I'm solving in the back-end. Even the idea of building my own event system to be able to handle all of this. Coming through and seeing the limitations that Nodejs is going to bring and even being inspired like maybe I just need to switch out Nodejs and ditch JavaScript for a backend that's going to be able to handle this a lot better. That's exciting. I want to learn this. That's exciting. I want to learn this, and so that's why I think I'm going to finally go on the path of becoming a good backend developer.
Don Hansen:I think I chose the wrong path with frontend and I think a lot of my complaints with frontend some frontend developers, they just don't see it that way and that's okay. I think the JavaScript ecosystem is shit. I think the culture that is built, this cult, think the culture that has built this cult like culture that has been built around a lot of the really popular tools has blown me away about, like how how much nuance is ignored on the front end. Like it's, it's like black and white. You either use this in one solution for every single problem you have or you don't, or you just get shiny toy syndrome and like every new JavaScript library or framework that comes out, you have to try that out and we have to replace our code base with that. Like just the thought process of front-end developers. I just I don't think going in that direction was building me into a better developer. Going in that direction was building me into a better developer and I feel like I really lost out on a lot of CS fundamental concepts and I feel like I lost out on being a really good software engineer.
Don Hansen:That I see like when I look at curriculums and I see the extent of what you need to know and the foundation that is expected of you as a backend developer, the bar just seems higher, and not for it's not complex for complexity's sake. But the backend is actually complex, right, because there's a lot to it, not because there's just a ton of problems that keeps being introduced into the backend which there are some of what? But like, that's all a front end. That's why front end keeps getting more complex. You're just front end developers, I swear, just making it more complex so they can remain hired for as long as possible. It just like complexity for complexity sake is not what I'm interested in. I just and I just enjoy backend problems more. I just have fun, fun again. It brings that excitement back.
Don Hansen:So, um, I'm going to finally, uh, try to become a good software engineer. Um, and I feel like I've. I feel like I'm just mediocre, like I have built. When I left my third position, I was getting paid over 100k I'm not going to say the exact amount, but like I was a was a mid level developer and I feel like at this point I have a much more solid programming foundation than I had when I left that position, I feel like I'm a better developer. But then, as I keep meeting other really brilliant developers and start expanding past the front end brilliant developers and start expanding past the front end, I kind of feel like I'm like kind of low end, mid-level developer where I'm just starting to see so many levels to software engineering that just seem like exciting to explore. Like I just want to get better. I want to be a good developer and I feel like I'm a mediocre developer and I'm tired of being a mediocre developer and I think I've been trying to find like what, what would kind of spark that interest in me. But I think I'm going to dive deep into backend.
Don Hansen:So, um, a program that I often advertise is bootdev right. You know, um, full disclosure. Uh, I'm an affiliate partner with them. You can use my coupon in the description to get a discount and I don't care if you use it or not. I just wanted to disclose that right. I get a commission, I get paid for it. I like I don't care if you use it or not, I recommend it. But like that's not why I'm telling you I'm going to go to the full bootdev program or like most of it.
Don Hansen:I don't know if I'm going to go through the JavaScript portion, but I'm going to go through most of it and I want to really dive deep in the backend. I want to actually get good with it and I'm wondering if I never really pursued it because I feared that I just sucked with it, right, like when you get hired and you get paid a lot of money to just do something you're good at, it's really hard to change that and do something drastically different and lose that stability. But you know, like I quit my dev job five years ago to kind of build my own company. So, like, what do I have to lose, right? So I'm gonna dive deep in the back end. I want to become a good developer for once and stop being mediocre and pursue something that actually excites me. And if I go back into the industry with it which I very well might, awesome.
Don Hansen:But if I don't, like, I feel like I'm going to just build a lot more interesting things, um, and actually get excited about coding and stop pushing it off so often. So, um, I'm going to be live streaming this. Um quite a bit, I think and you know my schedule might change a little bit and I'll try to update you guys when I do go live but, um, yeah, you'll see me going live learning through bootdev, building some other stuff. Um, I'd like to be doing a lot of coding, regardless of whether I'm live, streaming it or not, like I am set to become a good back developer. Um, I think it's about time and that finally excites me for once. So, um, I will try to provide updates and share, like, how my progress is going.
Don Hansen:But you know I talk a lot about, um, you know, try, like, really strive to become a good developer. But you know one thing that's really a blocker for that is when you don't have something that excites you to move forward. You can't just learn what you think is popular and is going to make you marketable. Companies want to hire good software engineers. They want to pay you a lot of money for being a good, a damn good software engineer a good, a damn good software engineer. And if I had to provide one piece of advice, stop chasing trends. A lot of people are skipping way too many foundations, and this advice comes from finally identifying that I have avoided a really solid foundation for so damn long. But, yeah, we're going to get that. We're going to become a good backend developer and you'll be able to see my process in the live stream. So I hope to see you there.