Learn the fundamentals and avoid frameworks and libraries.

Frameworks and libraries come and go, but they’re all just abstraction layers built on top of native APIs, and if you know those, you can effectively do anything.

Everyone I’ve worked with who knows vanilla JS or CSS can pick up a framework pretty quickly, while the reverse is often not the case.

When you have a strong grasp of semantics, accessibility, and document outline, you start seeing just how bad most developers’ use of HTML is. When you understand the box model, specificity, and document flow, you roll your eyes when you realize just how unnecessary Tailwind and Bootstrap are. When you understand how event propagation, DOM manipulation, and async/await work, you get a better idea of why a framework uses a particular approach and how to extend it for your needs.

So spend a ton of time with the MDN docs and W3 specs, give yourself projects to tinker with, start coding, learn from your failures, and keep going.

Anything else is really just pattern matching and not a path to acquiring useful knowledge.

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”

I’m self-taught and worked at Google for six years, so I’m hoping that helps validate my advice here. :) If you’re a forever learner, you should be okay. Web dev is a complex and ever-changing field, and that keeps it interesting. Good luck!