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Coming up with your own solution when it isn't informed by other solutions just means you are building another poor alternative. Frankly these frameworks and l

Coming up with your own solution when it isn't informed by other solutions just means you are building another poor alternative. Frankly these frameworks and libraries are all very similar and they do very similar things. Once you've learned one you can transition to the others quickly (it's the same way with old web frameworks, MVC frameworks are all the same with minor tweaks). They are worth evaluating though because some of them do one thing better than others, might as well borrow it where possible. I love learning new technology because even if I don't end up using framework x or y, I can pick up the best parts and use it in my own work which becomes simpler and more expressive as a result. I don't want to keep building websites from 2005. There have been some real advances and it's fun touse the best parts.

BigJono 9y ago
Yes, you're building a poor alternative. But you learn far more than you ever would just by using the existing libraries, by virtue of learning what not to do. Using other's tools is trading off knowledge for development time. It's often a good trade to make, but to pretend that learning the API surface of library #34341 is going to improve your skills more is wrong.
- amackera 9y ago
  Nobody said learning API surfaces is the right way. Most of these frameworks offer fairly simple APIs that are frankly pretty trivial to learn --- the key is to learn the application architecture and why it's different than the alternatives. Anyway, I think we can agree that exposure to other people's thoughts, and also coming up with your own thoughts, is probably the most fruitful way to learn.