How much web development do I need to know?

[noahgelman]

There is so much stuff to learn in web development. HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery (or another javascript library), PHP. MySQL, And now there are new HTML5 elements that are a whole new beast. Like the element for instance. How much of everything do I need to know? It seems like it’s just too much for any one person to learn.

[TheDoc]

It’s sort of a situation where you can’t be a master of everything, but you should certainly feel comfortable in most of it.

I feel like it’s similar to learning any language, though, once you’re fluent in it you don’t have to keep on ‘learning’ it. For example, I am ‘fluent’ in HTML and CSS. By that I mean I don’t have to look something up to know how to do it. PHP and JS, on the other hand, I am comfortable reading and knowing what’s happening, but to produce something myself by scratch is out of reach.

With all of the resources available online, it’s not imperative to be fluent in everything, as you can grab snippets from here and there to help you on your way. But you definitely want to be a master of something. If you’re grabbing snippets for every language, you’ll have an increased dev time and you won’t really learn anything.

People are usually put into two different categories of ‘Front-end’ and ‘Back-end’. The front-end folks (like myself) should be proficient in HTML, CSS, JS and some PHP. The back-end people are masters of any programming language (lots of choices) and should be able to get by in HTML and CSS.

[noahgelman]

I’m a Front-end too and am Fluent in HTML and CSS, I also know enough jQuery to solve most tasks that come my way. I know bit of PHP but not enough to do anything from scratch with.

I just feel like the rate at which things are being discovered is faster than the pace at which I’m learning them.

[jamygolden]

I just feel like the rate at which things are being discovered is faster than the pace at which I’m learning them

Lol yeah. I think I’m going to learn HTML5 as much as I can because clients aren’t asking for it yet (Non that I’ve worked for), and when they do, I want to be like the chrome experiemnts people ^_^

I also get a bit overwhelmed with the amount of things to learn,
– I want to learn javascript so I know what I’m actually doing when I use jQuery
– I am an noob when it comes to php, luckily C languages are relatively similar
– Then there are also things like svg
– Design elements such as art of colour, typography, etc.
– Seo (I really dislike SEO but I’m busy reading a sitepoint book on it)
– WordPress I’ve made a couple of sites before, but I was to make sites where people say “Wow, how did he do that”
– HTML5

And on top of all that I’m interested in how things work. Why CSS works the way it does, which selectors are more and less efficient to use.

I agree with @TheDoc though, you have to make a decision and stick to a certain area, but know enough in other areas so that you aren’t clueless.

The more I work with web development, the more I realize I know absolutely nothing lol.

[rkoziol7]

You should work. Try to do your best while developing projects – read a lot and learn from the experience of others. You will be more certain of your abilities soon.

[daredanger]

Web industry is really tough. People use the best of sites and services and to make a mark in this industry you really need to be innovative and creative and at the same time you need immense knowledge. I think you definitely need to be an expert in one area and quite comfortable in other areas.

Having said that with time and efforts I guess one can be an expert in two-three fields and we have an example of that in Chris Coyier. I’m sure he is an expert in HTML, CSS, jQuery, WordPress, Writing, Presentation Skills and Designing (Photoshop, Typography etc.). So I think you should target to be an expert in two-three areas of web designing or may be more. Remember nothing is impossible.

[TheDoc]

Here is my rule of thumb:

In each project, whether client work or personal, include at least one thing that you have to learn to complete it.

[noahgelman]

Damn, those Chrome Experiment people are crazy. How are people so good at HTML5 already? How long has it been publicly available?

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