Next.js & React - The Complete Guide (incl. Two Paths!)

Haha, wow, that same video was actually what got me into Javascript, which eventually led me to where I am now, creating full stack apps with React and NextJS. It's been about 2 years.

So here's the path I took. I wanted to learn JS after watching that video so I went to Udemy and bought a $10 course called modern Javascript from the beginning. It was pretty great but a little over my head. As soon as the first project rolled around, creating a book list application, I knew that I would need to go back and learn HTML/CSS first because I was completely lost on that side. So I put JS on hold for a few months and then did HTML/CSS from the beginning.

It took me 2 months to finish HTML/CSS course at about 1 hour a day, and after that I went back to the JS course and finished it in about 3-4 months.

After that, I felt I had a nice introduction to web dev, but was still totally a baby when It came to making things, so I did a few easy projects on my own to solidify my knowledge, and eventually stumbled across this course which was useful for learning more vanilla JS in practical applications. I did select projects from there and it helped but didn't do all 20 projects.

So in the process of doing that 20 project course, I actually went pretty deep on one of the projects, I believe it was the one using Meal DB. I created search and filter functionality and even different pages and everything, but after a while I started to realize how slow it was making projects with Vanilla JS. Over time I realized that people don't actually make full scale web apps using vanilla JS at least not professionally (though it can be done) - and was introduced to the React framework after this realization. I watched a lot of youtube about it and slowly started to see what React was about and later on (maybe 6-8 months after finishing that first JS course) I took this course for React and was thoroughly impressed. I learned a ton in this course, and I think it's a must for new React devs. This course changed my life.

In about 2 months, I had finished that React course, and then I was at a crossroads. Because up until this point I wasn't sure how far I wanted to go with web dev. It started as me watching a single JS video so that I could add a skill to my resume but the more I went with it the more I loved creating web applications. React was a total game changer, and suddenly I started to see how me, a solo developer, could create entire websites by myself. Suddenly I understood how people created such amazing portfolios and started to see that it was possible for me. So around this time I decided that I wanted to actually do several projects with React, develop a portfolio and Resume, and try to switch careers into it. I knew it would take a while, so I developed a plan while I worked from home during Covid and began spending like 3-4 hours a day working and learning this topic. This was around November of 2020, that I made this decision. It worked out for me well because I still got paid full time but also was learning what I wanted to learn at my own pace, which finally closed the door to the possibility of doing a bootcamp (which up to that point, I had been considering. Glad I didn't do it!)

Following that React course linked above, I did a solo project where I created a weatther application, and that took a few weeks. As Christmas/New Years of that year rolled around, I started to see that I had a new blind spot - backend and full stack. I had been messing around with React for months now but I had never used my own API, never created my own Database, etc, never created a server. And I started to see how easy it was to do that stuff. So I made a resolution to learn how to make a full stack React app, and a few weeks later I started this full stack react course (which I honestly wouldn't recommend, it was only ok) where I learned all about NodeJS and how to create a full stack application with Authentication and everything. That was eye opening and I learned so much, that after finishing it (about 3 months) I decided that I wanted to build one myself. Now we're in March 2021.

So started my longest solo project to date, which took about 4 months to fully build and deploy. This one was a doozie, I learned waaay more than I thought I would. That was only about 2 months ago that I finished that project (Early June).

Since then, Ive continued to mess around with Node and done some small projects, but I mostly have been learning NextJS, which I realized was valuable for how simple and easy it helped me to create full stack applications, and for how easy deployment was. For that large solo project, actually deploying was the hardest part.

So I took this course with Next JS which was so much fun. That took about 1 month and only 3 weeks ago, I started creating my Web Development portfolio using NextJS. And that's where I'm at now.

Anyway, it's long winded but I wanted to let you know my story and have a taste of the kind of time and patience it takes to develop skills with this. My advice is to figure out what you want out of Javascipt - do you want to just tinker with or do you want to use it to build full scale web applications? Because over time, my goals definitely shifted the more I learned about it, and now I'm actually building full scale apps, which is fun. I went into this thinking that JS by itself would be useful for my job, but it turns out that it really isn't. And to be honest, it's only so useful for building websites without a framework like React or Angular. The real power of Javascript, is using it with a framework to quickly build powerful reactive applications so I recommend you consider that before spending 6 months learning it.

Also, these course I've linked are just the ones I've used, not necessarily the best ones out there. The path I took was long, partly because I didn't know what to learn first, didn't know where I Wanted to take it. I think if I were to do it over, I would have spent way less time tinkering with vanilla JS and would have gotten into using a framework much sooner, because I could have probably cut out 8 months or so of learning time if I had done that.

So regardless of what you end up doing with Javascript, if you want to build websites, you'll need to learn HTML and CSS pretty well, so I'd start there and get the basics. Then work on building small simple web apps using JS where you're inserting and removing things from the DOM. After you've done 1 or 2 of those, start learning a framework like React, this will take a while and will feel weird at first but just stick with it. After you've gotten that exposure you should have a good idea if you want to continue learning this or not. Try a solo project something small and basic, and see if it makes sense. If it's fun just keep going!

Surely YouTube records user interactions by getting them to log in - you can't like videos without logging in first.

I guess it would be possible to record user interactions without authentication, but it would open the system to abuse: users could fake engagements by opening a second browser in privacy mode. But perhaps this is not a concern for your project.

Most of this functionality is available from Maximilian Schwarzmüller's course Next.js & React - The Complete Guide (but is available elsewhere - this is just where I learned it).

I haven't taken the course but Maximilian Schwarzmüller's Next.js course might be nice to add on since you're learning React. Good luck on your coding journey!

Try this guy. He is not bad.
https://www.udemy.com/course/nextjs-react-node-aws-mern-lms-elearning-udemy-clone/

Also this one for intro:

https://www.udemy.com/course/nextjs-react-the-complete-guide/