New Year, New You. What to Focus on in 2022.

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode lays out practical learning goals for web developers in 2022 by experience level, emphasizing fundamentals over frameworks. For beginners, the hosts prioritize semantic HTML, data manipulation in JavaScript, and basic CSS animation; intermediates should focus on CSS variables, server-side fundamentals, meetings, and repo organization; advanced developers should invest in CI/CD, advanced TypeScript, teaching, and 3D web work. The discussion also includes sponsor spots, productivity tips, and personal recommendations.

Main Topics: Beginner priorities: semantic HTML and JavaScript data handling: Scott emphasizes semantic HTML as a career differentiator in interviews and code review, while Wes recommends mastering arrays, objects, maps, and sets, especially looping, copying, transforming, and typing data. Soft skills for beginners: accurate issue reporting and concise communication: Scott recommends learning to file helpful GitHub issues with clear context, references, and reproduction details. Wes stresses short, skimmable emails with bullets and clear asks. Beginner creative goal: CSS-only animation and full-stack form building: The hosts suggest fun projects like animating elements with pure HTML/CSS and building a complete contact form that spans UI, validation, server handling, and email delivery. Intermediate priorities: CSS variables and server-side fundamentals: Scott highlights CSS custom properties for themeable, scalable UI systems, while Wes says front-end developers increasingly need HTTP, request/response, headers, caching, cookies, and body parsing knowledge. Intermediate soft skills: meetings and repo organization: The episode argues that developers should learn client-facing meeting skills, speak in business outcomes, avoid jargon overload, and present professionally. Wes adds that organizing chaotic repositories is a highly valuable non-coding skill. Advanced priorities: CI/CD, advanced TypeScript, teaching, and conference speaking: For advanced developers, Scott focuses on building automation with GitHub Actions and other CI/CD tools, while Wes recommends advanced TypeScript type work, teaching coworkers, and giving conference or meetup talks. Advanced creative goal: 3D and data-scraping projects: Scott recommends making something 3D with tools like React Three Fiber, Framer Motion 3D, or Svelte Cubed. Wes suggests scraping, massaging, and visualizing data from real systems such as banking or retirement accounts.

Key Arguments: Semantic HTML improves both code quality and hiring potential because interviewers and employers can quickly assess whether a developer uses elements appropriately. Working effectively with data structures is a core JavaScript skill because most real development is transforming data rather than simply rendering UI. Small, precise issue reports and emails save teams time and reduce noise; concise context is more useful than long, vague descriptions. Intermediate developers should understand server-side fundamentals because the boundary between front end and back end is increasingly blurred in modern frameworks and serverless workflows. CSS variables are becoming central to scalable design systems because they enable theming, overrides, and reusable styling tokens. Developers who can speak well in meetings and represent technical work clearly to nontechnical stakeholders are more valuable to teams and clients. Advanced engineers can multiply team efficiency by automating repetitive checks, deployments, and quality gates with CI/CD tools. Teaching and public speaking deepen expertise and improve influence, making advanced developers more effective inside and outside their companies. 3D web development is likely to become more important as browser experiences expand into AR/VR and richer interactive environments.

Data Points: Podcast episode number: 117 - Referenced in the discussion about how to email busy people Number of beginner/intermediate/advanced categories: 3 - The episode is structured around beginner, intermediate, and advanced developer levels Number of sponsor companies: 3 - Sentry, Linode, and FreshBooks were sponsored in the episode Sentry promo code: tasty treat - Given for listeners to use in the sponsor segment Sentry route performance improvement: 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds - Wes described a caching improvement on level up tutorials after updating Svelte and caching Level Up annual new courses: 12 - Wes said signing up for the year provides 12 new courses over the year Premium courses on Level Up: 60+ - Wes described the size of the premium course library Total videos on Level Up: 3,000-4,000 - Wes estimated the overall video library size FreshBooks free trial: 30-day free trial - Mentioned in the sponsor segment Linode free credit: $100 - Offered to new users signing up through the sponsor link Conference-related time span: 6 months - Wes referenced a mountaineering challenge completed in about six months Previous mountaineering record: 4 years - Scott cited a prior record for the climbing challenge 14 peaks: 14 - Referenced in the Netflix documentary recommendation about the tallest mountains Mountaineering record comparison: 7 months vs 7 years - Wes later clarified the documentary’s 14 peaks record and previous record

Pivotal Quotes: "knowing and understanding semantic HTML will make you a more enticing candidate to be hired anywhere" — Scott: Beginner coding focus, arguing semantic HTML helps in job interviews and code reviews "If you are a front-end dev, you will need to know server-side coding fundamentals as well" — Wes: Intermediate coding focus, explaining the blur between front-end and back-end work "the most important things are the fundamentals, the foundations, and the concepts, and the ideas" — Scott: Closing summary emphasizing learning core skills over chasing frameworks

Implications: Listeners are urged to prioritize durable fundamentals, communication, and automation over trend-chasing. The episode suggests that developers who combine technical depth with clarity, teamwork, and teaching will be most competitive as web development keeps blending front end, back end, and tooling.