Frontend at this point is a problem just as much as backend is a problem... And I don't mean backend as in "I built an MVC app with Rails". I mean JVM + Data store + infrastructure with virtualization + APIs + caching + queues + blah blah blah.
You don't wake up one morning going "I know some java...lemme learn Dynamo and S3 and SQS while learning dependency injection and Spring while figuring out what this SQL thing is about on Postgres...or should I use MySQL? Oh and there's Maven and Puppet and all the deployment tools...
That would be totally insane.
Look at frontend the same way. If you're trying to learn react and babel and ES6 and webpack and eslint and flow/typescript and NPM/Yarn and Node while looking into Service workers and websockets at the same time as reading a book on Functional programming, yeah, that's overwhelming.
Pick one thing and a time and go for it. If you're a backend developer and getting overwhelmed by frontend, it's because you're attacking it from a "Frontend is an atomic small thing" perspective, as opposed to being an ecosystem just like on the backend. And that won't work.
I agree. When we first started teaching React workshops, we taught a 1-day workshop where we introduced students to React, Webpack, React Router, and Redux. This was all done with ES6.
Fortunately we had the benefit of selecting from a large number of applicants, and we required a brief selection examination. Most were already strong in JavaScript and many even had ES6 and React experience. So learning React & Redux, and grasping the concept of webpack and React Router was not too difficult for that group.
However if you're coming fresh into the React ecosystem, and especially front-end development on the whole, it's important that you don't try to learn all of these things at once, as many have pointed out here. Our current workshops are focused on learning React and React alone. For example, our current "build an e-commerce app with React" workshop gives you a boilerplate with everything you need, and we build out the application from that point.
We are based in SF but often travel to other cities. Our website www.realworldreact.com is under development, so you can learn more about us at https://meetup.com/Real-World-React
It would have been nice of you to point to a scope or topic, not just say "Get simpler".
You're right, but in your backend example, one might say - Go learn ONE SQL technology, such as Postgres, to understand relational backend, which is a big thing. Then, if you'd like, go learn ONE document based backend, such as MongoDB, which is popular.
Or, recommend a book on the subject, such as "Seven Databases in Seven Weeks".
But that's backend. I don't know where to start with frontend.
You don't wake up one morning going "I know some java...lemme learn Dynamo and S3 and SQS while learning dependency injection and Spring while figuring out what this SQL thing is about on Postgres...or should I use MySQL? Oh and there's Maven and Puppet and all the deployment tools...
That would be totally insane.
Look at frontend the same way. If you're trying to learn react and babel and ES6 and webpack and eslint and flow/typescript and NPM/Yarn and Node while looking into Service workers and websockets at the same time as reading a book on Functional programming, yeah, that's overwhelming.
Pick one thing and a time and go for it. If you're a backend developer and getting overwhelmed by frontend, it's because you're attacking it from a "Frontend is an atomic small thing" perspective, as opposed to being an ecosystem just like on the backend. And that won't work.