The Title?

So what’s the title of the series all about?

I’m not trying to insult you with criticism about your current lack of knowledge or understanding of JavaScript. I’m not suggesting you can’t or won’t be able to learn JavaScript. I’m not boasting about secret advanced insider wisdom that I and only a select few possess.

Seriously, all those were real reactions to the original series title before folks even read the books. And they’re baseless.

The primary point of the title “You Don’t Know JS Yet” is to point out that most JS developers don’t take the time to really understand how the code that they write works. They know that it works—that it produces a desired outcome. But they either don’t understand exactly how, or worse, they have an inaccurate mental model for the how that falters on closer scrutiny.

I’m presenting a gentle but earnest challenge to you the reader, to set aside the assumptions you have about JS, and approach it with fresh eyes and an invigorated curiosity that leads you to ask why for every line of code you write. Why does it do what it does? Why is one way better or more appropriate than the other half-dozen ways you could have accomplished it? Why do all the “popular kids” say to do X with your code, but it turns out that Y might be a better choice?

I added “Yet” to the title, not only because it’s the second edition, but because ultimately I want these books to challenge you in a hopeful rather than discouraging way.

But let me be clear: I don’t think it’s possible to ever fully know JS. That’s not an achievement to be obtained, but a goal to strive after. You don’t finish knowing everything about JS, you just keep learning more and more as you spend more time with the language. And the deeper you go, the more you revisit what you knew before, and you re-learn it from that more experienced perspective.

I encourage you to adopt a mindset around JavaScript, and indeed all of software development, that you will never fully have mastered it, but that you can and should keep working to get closer to that end, a journey that will stretch for the entirety of your software development career, and beyond.

You can always know JS better than you currently do. That’s what I hope these YDKJSY books represent.