I had the opportunity to attend a coding bootcamp, which I signed up for because I really wanted to learn programming. I found it to be an amazing experience, and came away with a rather specific set of tools (JavaScript, React, Node, Express, and Mongodb) and a particular pattern to use them - nothing wrong with that. As a newbie, I was convinced that the best thing for me to do was practice these skills - use these tools - over and over until I got good at them. (My own version of "impostor syndrome".)
There was one tiny problem....
I kept running into some of the same roadblocks over and over, and not really finding a solution for them. It seemed like everyone else on the internet could make this work, but not me. So I kept practicing...
Until one day I was researching a problem (Express and Promises) and came across an article that made me stop and think. It had the kind of title I normally don't click through ("Stop doing/using this"), but I did that day. The article was talking about the limitations Express has with Promises, and recommended several other frameworks that handle Promises better. This really made me pause. In other areas of my life I practice "the best tool for the job" mentality, but with my coding, I was stubbornly sticking to the small tool set I had been taught at bootcamp - I had a "hammer" and everything was a "nail".
So I decided to try a different framework. This sparked some real fear for me - notions of being "disloyal" to the stack I had been taught, fear of going "off the beaten track". And yet, the framework I chose is actively supported and works well for what I needed. It has pushed me to learn a new pattern of working with my own REST api building, and perhaps more importantly, it has encouraged me to explore other non-popular technologies in pursuit of the "best tool for the job".
I wanted to share my experience in the hope that if others find themselves in a similar position will be encouraged in their own journeys of exploration.
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