When I first began making applications for the web, getting started was hard. Just figuring out which components to download, how to configure them, and getting Hello World through it all was a daunting affair. Frameworks like Ruby on Rails changed that, and now it really is possible to animate a complete database-backed web application in 15 minutes or less.
That means these days you can go from (almost) zero prerequisites to a (sorta) working software prototype in a bootcamp’s worth of introduction material. That’s amazing. Basic proficiency has never been more attainable or approachable.
Given this leap, it’s no wonder that people mistake the beginning for the end. That getting started is the same thing as knowing it all. But it remains a completely unrealistic expectation, and thus a mistake. Building a complete information system, like, say, your Basecamp or Shopify or GitHub or Zendesk remains real work that requires deep skill. It’s foolish to pretend otherwise.
And perhaps we have pretended otherwise at times. I’m certainly guilty of focusing on just how easy we made getting started that the conversation often didn’t extend to the work it takes to finish. Simply because that’s what felt like the main obstacle to getting more people onto the path of learning at the time.
Now that this obstacle is mostly cleared away, it’s time to focus on the latter part of the discussion: Becoming really good at anything takes time. Web development is no different, not even with Rails. We’ve changed the game from “hard to learn, hard to master” to “easy to learn, hard to master”. Yes, the second part remains the same.
I’m still learning. I’m still getting better. And I’ve been at this web development game for damn close to twenty years (if you count when I started dabbling with HTML/CSS). That doesn’t at all mean it’ll take you twenty years to become good at it, but it probably does mean that you should have realistic expectations about what you can learn in three or six months.
And it’s not so much about how long it’ll take you to learn your way around the framework or the language or the ecosystem. It’s as much as how long it’ll take you to become an expert. It’s one thing knowing there are 10 different ways to do a thing; it’s another to know which is a better fit and when.
This is part of why I like to compare writing software with writing prose. Most people in the developed world will have basic proficiency writing their native tongue by the time they finish high school. But how long does it take to become a great writer? Longer than that. Much longer, in most cases. Few find that surprising.
Yet plenty of people do seem to be genuinely surprised that a developer who just picked up Ruby on Rails, or any other extensive framework, language, or ecosystem, doesn’t make all the right choices the first time they’re faced with them. And that’s just plain silly.
Let’s continue to celebrate how easy we’ve made getting started, but let’s also set a realistic timeline for mastery. Not to scare anyone off the journey, but to prepare them for it. A glorious, years-long journey of learning. It’s a lot of fun if you know what you’re in for.
