The Frontend community is very active. Javascript is the most popular language on GitHub and npm is the largest package management system out there. New projects and technologies come out often, which makes it hard to stay up to date. So, if it’s not possible to follow and learn everything, how can a developer decide if something is worth their time?

We came up with two rules to help with that:

Rule #1: Build Awareness

Initially, you can subscribe to newsletters, follow YouTube channels, and look at GitHub Trending. Here’s a short list of our recommendations:

That might seem overwhelming at first, but once you are immersed in this world, you just need to pay attention to what you hear over and over again. For instance, how many times have you heard about React this past year? If several developers are talking about it, there must be something at least worth checking out there (hint: there is). That doesn’t mean you need to go deep and learn to work with every new framework that comes out. It just means you need to be aware of its existence, which brings us to rule number two.

Rule #2: Know the Basics

Rather than learning a framework just because it’s trending, take a step back and try to understand what problems it is trying to solve and what are the concepts underneath it.

By doing that, the next time you face a challenge, you will have a bigger set of solutions you can use, and it will be easier to decide. Once you make the choice, then it’s time to go further.

Also, before learning about a complex concept in React or any other framework, make sure you have a solid foundation of Javascript. Once you know the basics, it will be easier to build on top of that.

New frameworks will come out, but there is no need to get worried about having to learn everything. If you follow these two simple rules, you will notice it will be easier to stay up to date!