A path into the work.
WHAT TO LEARN FIRST
One language, properly
How HTTP works: methods, status codes, headers
Databases and SQL, genuinely rather than through an ORM only How authentication and sessions work
WHY SQL SPECIFICALLY
Because the database is where most performance and correctness problems live, and an ORM conceals them.
WHAT TO BUILD FIRST
Something small and complete: an API with authentication, a database and a deployment.
WHY COMPLETE
Building a fragment teaches fragments. Deploying something teaches everything in between.
WHAT TO ADD NEXT
Validation Error handling and logging Background jobs Tests
WHAT TO LEARN ALONGSIDE
Version control The command line Basic server administration
WHAT TO PRACTISE
Reading other people's code.
WHY
Most professional work is changing existing systems, not writing new ones.
WHAT TO AVOID
Collecting frameworks Tutorials without building anything Moving on before something works end to end
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Shipping something, and then operating it.
