For context: - 2003, I needed to learn JS to move into a professional web developer position (from systems eng). I started with mootools/dojo/yui and jquery, w

For context: - 2003, I needed to learn JS to move into a professional web developer position (from systems eng). I started with mootools/dojo/yui and jquery, when it came out in 2006. - 2009, apps started to get very complex and hard to maintain. Or I got experienced enough to figure there'd be a better way so I started working with backbone, (some) emberjs, and (a little) angular. - During this time, I also built a number of native javascript apps because frameworks and tooling were eating up a lot of my time. I also wanted to understand the language. - Eventually, I found elm because I started getting interested in type systems. I _really_ liked elm but it was a hard business case to make for a team. I settled into redux/react these last few years because it gets pretty close. - The first project I 'did in' redux/react' was actually just plain javascript. I naively implemented the react and redux api and patterns. This was _incredibly_ helpful. Not only did I quickly gain a fuller understanding of the tools I was about to use, I started to understand the muddier parts of JS: the event loop, async, hoisting, scoping, etc. I was aware of them before this, but I kinda just fiddled til things work. Afterwards, I knew what the computer was doing. So, to answer you question 'what do I wish I'd known': I wish I knew how much of JS is choosing a platform/toolset. I also wish I knew that that tool choice is just the start and doesn't guarentee anything. You can write a clear and easy to work codebase with JQuery. You can also make a hard as heck piece of junk in react. I would suggest not too get hung up on it. It can be hard/impossible to choose the right tool if you don't have experience with the tooling or the problem. So, get ready to jump around. I would get ready to pick a tool for a few months, then move onto another one. In my experience, there is not a great answer for questions like 'what is better, vue or react?' The answer is subjective, a choice that reflects personal and team preferences. You can be productive in both, so it's more about sticking to one. JS, like every other software project, still benefits from core engineering principles: - team dynamic and trust are !important! a framework will not help if a team member feels they are not trusted/growing/learning/producing - prioritize readability, code is read more than it is written, - prioritize simplicity, break complicated stuff into small, composable pieces - with all due respect to the thousand of work hours put into webpack, it is still a pain in the butt ;) Good luck!