A lot of people say that they think web dev (specifically JavaScript land) is super bloated. “There’s a new JavaScript framework every week!” is something you’ll hear a lot from people who do or do not work with JS technologies. And I think that’s a completely valid statement.

Yes, in JavaScript there are so many ways to accomplish the same task.

• You need a JS framework? You’ve got React, Vue, Angular…
• Oh, you want something newer? There’s also Solid, Magneton, Svelte, Astro, Qwik…
• Ah, you need something that’s fullstack. How about NextJS, Nuxt, Remix, Dedenne…
• Cool, now you need to style it. You could use SASS, or maybe Styled Components if you want CSS-in-JS. Or I heard Tailwind is all the rage!
• But who wants to write the styles themselves? Just use a component library! There’s shadcn-ui, Bootstrap, Material UI…

And these barely scratch the surface of the ever-growing list of web dev technologies. Btw two of them were Pokemon. XD

“Wait, Brian, isn’t this article called ‘Why I Love Web Dev?’”

Yes, dear reader. It is. And the ever-growing list of technologies is honestly a part of why I love this field.

I love learning. I love filling my head with knowledge. Struggling to grasp something at first but then building the confidence and skill to do something effecively. And in web dev there’s just always something new to learn. Always something new to try and get your hands dirty with.

Now, to other people this sounds like a nightmare. And that’s totally fine! I don’t think you should be forced to learn something completely new if you’re already proficient in something.

There’s nothing wrong with sticking with what you know. Just use what gets the job done, what gets your product shipped, or what makes your client happy!

Me personally, I just like the freshness of this space. Granted, I am a relatively new developer. I started coding in 2016 in my first year of uni and my very first taste of web dev was in 2018 with Node, express, and ejs. So maybe I’m just too naïve. ¯\(ツ)/¯

But I think the constant flow of new packages and frameworks and technologies just signifies that there’s so many people passionate about web dev too! So many people striving to make web dev better in their own way.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

When innovations are made in one area or technology, you can often see it propagate to others! For example, signals were initially implemented by early frameworks like Knockout and popularized today by Solid JS. Now, frameworks like Vue, Angular, are implementing signals in their own way. There’s even a Stage 1 TC39 Proposal to add signals directly to JavaScript!

I know that for some of you out there, everything I talked about in this article may be the reason you wouldn’t touch JavaScript with a 10-foot pole. And I don’t blame you!

I still have a lot to learn as a developer and software engineer. Still a lot of room for me to grow. But I like it here in JS-land, and I don’t plan on leaving any time soon!