This is looking like a lengthy post, so here’s the Reader’s Digest version, with full context below. Dear community, should I:
- Refactor old JS projects to use what I’ve recently studied, ES6, Sass, & React (and git)
- Start a new project from scratch
- Jump into Node and/or Express
Context: I’m going to start a full-stack bootcamp in May. This means that at first it’s going to be stuff I’ve already covered, though eventually it will get into backend stuff that I haven’t touched. I’m very aware that for any technology that I can “preview” before the course, I’ll have an easier time and retain more. The last real project project I completed was before Christmas. In the past few weeks I’ve studied ES2015, Sass, React, and (I’m embarrassed, only just now) Git, without really putting any of them into practice on a project. I feel like my grasp and retention of them is tenuous without doing so. With the universities I teach at having spring break in the next couple of weeks, I’ve got more time than usual. I could work on refactoring old projects (eye toward ultimate portfolio worthiness), or start a new one from scratch (maybe collaboratively).
At the same time, I ain’t got but a couple of months to continue “pre-learning” and I ain’t done a lick of backend type stuff yet. I hear it really opens up the whole coding world to you, and it’s an area that’s still pretty conceptually murky to me. I can’t wait to get up in there.
Whaddaya think?