Once upon a time, there was a front-end programmer who accidentally got a magic lamp. The magic lamp promised to grant him one wish. So he made a wish to the lamp that he could learn all the front-end skills during his lifetime. The lamp thought for a moment and gave him eternal life…

Before we get started, promise me to ask yourself this question: What does a good front end engineer look like? If your answer is proficient in front-end frameworks, or front-end skills, or understanding what users really want, or even a full-stack engineer, then congratulations, your answer is pretty much the same as mine when I first started thinking about this question. Indeed, the definition of outstanding in the front-end field is naturally proficient in one or more front-end development tools and frameworks, understand the underlying logic of these frameworks, know the needs and pain points of users, have their own open source projects and technical blogs, and write clean and bug-free code. These qualities are both desirable and regrettable to every front-end practitioner. Because once we have a definition of a “good” front-end engineer in our head, it seems like we’re never going to be a good front-end engineer. It is not now, and there is no telling when it will be. It’s enough to make us reflect on whether our inability to be “excellent” is due to our own lack of effort and talent, or to the very definition of the word “excellent”. Wait, let’s take a look at the legend of the “good front End engineer”. Three myths of a good front-end engineer

  1. Omniscient Remember this picture from the previous article on front-end fatigue?

Yes, good front end engineers have mastered almost everything on this chart. They don’t suffer from front-end fatigue, they can keep up with every new iteration of technology, and they have the latest tools and technologies at their fingertips. For the most part, they don’t need to look at technical documents and manuals because they seem to have them in their heads. Whether it’s writing regular expressions, calling apis, or handling complex JS code, they can do it at their fingertips. Every time I have a code review, I always feel nervous because my ugly and low-performing code will be exposed to my colleagues. Good front-end engineers never have these problems, and instead their code is often worshipped as a template. Simple, elegant and efficient. You know what they say, pretty doesn’t look good. Just beautiful is not enough, even the notes are just right. In short, give you a reason not to praise it.

# Legend is hard to match reality

I don’t know if you have a front end engineer who can do all three. Such people exist, of course, but as ordinary people, we may not have access to them at all. Because being able to do one of these things is a lot more than just good. Those who have achieved two or more points are no longer simple engineers, but at least leaders or Ctos. We can aim for these fabled qualities, but we shouldn’t define excellence so untouchable and impersonal that it alienates most hardworking front-end engineers.

In fact, as a front-end developer, it is particularly important to have a learning atmosphere and a communication circle. This is my front-end communication group: 330336289, invitation number: Silence. No matter you are small white or big ox welcome to enter, we exchange and study together

# 5 Steps to make excellence within reach

  1. Admitting that you don’t know Yes, you read that right, admitting that you don’t know is definitely a class act. The explosion of front-end technology has led to innovative ideas and extreme experiences that are already everywhere. But at the same time, it leaves front-end developers in the confusion and misery of trying to keep up. To pursue such rapid technological progress without judgment is to reach the point where you learn a little of everything and nothing. It’s okay not to know all the technology, and you can’t. Admitting you don’t know is better than pretending you do. “React is so complicated that you need to add ReactRouter and Flux to write large applications.” “” What do you usually do with React? “”… (pawn)…”
  2. New technology! More than once you’ve probably heard the sneer, “What? Are you still using Gulp? It’s so old, everyone uses Webpack now, it’s much better than Gulp.” I don’t know what the irony is. The new technology is better than the old one, right? To evaluate a tool out of context is to be a bully. We must learn and use new technology not just because it’s new or cool, but because it helps us better solve our current problems. If the old technology has solved the problem perfectly, we can ignore the new technology. The next time someone insults you for not using the latest tools, go ahead and tell them, “Kids see what’s new and what’s new. Adults see what’s good and what’s bad. You too young too simple.”
  3. Being able to remember lots of technical details efficiently is certainly a sign of strength, but not being able to remember is not a sign of weakness or clumsiness. In such an Internet age of information luxury, most of the knowledge can be baidu Google within 5 minutes. We can outsource some of our memories to the Internet. It’s like a computer. Memory space is precious, and hard drives don’t have too much space to worry about. Our brains are like memory, and the Internet is our hard drive. All we need to do is store tiny indexes in our brains, handing over concrete and vast details of knowledge to the giant hard drive of the Internet. Wouldn’t it be a waste to store a great deal of our knowledge and technical details in our brains, an expensive memory? Therefore, the most important thing is not how much knowledge and technology you can remember, but how quickly and efficiently you can use the indexes built in your brain when you need them, and then find them on the Internet, a hard disk with almost unlimited capacity. Knowing where the knowledge is, that’s a definite excellence.
  4. Every programmer wants to write perfect code, but the problem is, it all starts with bad code. Most importantly, we need to start writing, not stop writing for fear of imperfection. It’s the same thing as writing. I have not written in Jane’s book for more than half a year. It is not because I do not want to write, but because I am so eager to write wonderful and perfect articles that I cannot write. It left me in deep self-doubt that my mediocre talent didn’t match my high expectations for myself. But I am writing this article today because I have repeatedly told myself: Keep it simple, keep it simple in the way I write. . In short, you should start writing first. It’s the same with writing code. It has to be written before it gives us a chance to make it perfect. In fact, perfect code is not written, it is modified. The ability to debug is more important than the ability to code. I like this sentence very much: “Software is soft.” Software is soft, code is soft. Remember the soft play-doh we used to play with as kids? What if it’s not pinched? It doesn’t matter. It’s soft. It’s flat. That’s what code is all about.
  5. We all think that good people are good because they are able to immerse themselves in what they are doing and not be interrupted by the outside world. This is of course true. Only by focusing and focusing on one thing can we do it well. A good front end engineer is someone who hones their skills and pays close attention to the development of the front end. It’s their focus and indefatigability that makes them great. But is this the case? Not exactly. The pace of front-end development has penetrated into every aspect of human society. Every industry needs websites and needs to find ways to interact with specific groups of people, and front-end technology is the best solution for such needs. As front-end developers, if we only limit ourselves to the narrow field of front-end technology, where does technology innovation come from? As a music lover myself, I usually record some music videos to amuse myself. One day IT occurred to me to wonder if there was any spark between the front end and music. A quick Google search reveals excellent JavaScript audio libraries. Howler. js, loop.js, Audiosynth. js, tone.js, all music library for JavaScript. If music lovers who are front-end developers were to focus on the front end and not on their own, would there still be good, imaginative front-end music tools out there? Get out of the front end, continue to cultivate your interests and hobbies when you’re not writing code, expose yourself to different fields and industries, and give yourself a different perspective. It’s the variety of interests we bring to the front end that allows innovation and technology to flourish.

Okay, now I’m ready to be a good front end engineer. Are you ready? Please share this article with friends who are learning front end. I hope this article can help some friends save time and speed up development. Finally, I wish all programmers can walk on the peak of life, so that the code will dream into reality, you can ask me any questions you don’t understand, when not busy at work, I hope to give you answers.