2024 the best way to learn a new language review

Price: $7.99
(as of Nov 14, 2024 14:44:08 UTC - Details)

Learning JavaScript is hell because of two problems.
I remove the problems, and you start having fun.

The first problem is retention. You remember only ten or twenty percent of what you read. That spells failure. To become fluent in a computer language, you have to retain pretty much everything.

How can you retain everything? Only by constantly being asked to play everything back. That's why people use flashcards. But my system does flashcards one better. After reading a short chapter, you go to my website and complete twenty interactive exercises. Algorithms check your work to make sure you know what you think you know. When you stumble, you do the exercise again. You keep trying until you know the chapter cold. The exercises are free.

The second problem is comprehension. Many learners hit a wall when they try to understand advanced concepts like variable scope and prototypes. Unfortunately, they blame themselves. That's why the Dummies books sell so well. But the fault lies with the authors, coding virtuosos who lack teaching talent. I'm the opposite of the typical software book author. I'll never code fast enough to land a job at Google. But I can teach.

Anyway, most comprehension problems are just retention problems in disguise. If you get lost trying to understand variable scope, it's because you don't remember how functions work. Thanks to the interactive exercises on my website, you'll always understand and remember everything necessary to confidently tackle the next concept.

"I've signed up to a few sites like Udemy, Codecademy, FreeCodeCamp, Lynda, YouTube videos, even searched on Coursera but nothing seemed to work for me. This book takes only 10 minutes each chapter and after that, you can exercise what you've just learned right away!" —Amazon reviewer Constanza Morales

Better than just reading. And more fun.

You'll spend two to three times as much time practicing as reading. It's how you wind up satisfied, confident, and proud, instead of confused, discouraged, and defeated. And since many people find doing things more enjoyable than reading things, it can be a pleasure to learn this way, quite apart from the impressive results you achieve.

"Very effective and fun." —Amazon reviewer A. Bergamini

Written especially for beginners.

I wrote the book and exercises especially for people who are new to programming. Making no assumptions about what you already know, I walk you through JavaScript slowly, patiently. I explain every little thing in sixth-grade English. I avoid unnecessary technical jargon like the plague. (Face it, fellow authors, it is the plague.)

"The layman syntax he uses...makes it much easier to suddenly realize a concept that seemed abstract and too hard to wrap your head around is suddenly not complicated at all." — Amazon reviewer IMHO

The exercises keep you focused, give you extra practice where you're shaky, and prepare you for each next step. Every lesson is built on top of a solid foundation that you and I have carefully constructed. Each individual step is small. But, as Amazon reviewer James Toban says, when you get to the end of the book, you've built "a tower of JavaScript."

If you're an accomplished programmer already, my book may be too elementary for you. (Do you really need to be told what a variable is?) But if you're new to programming, more than a thousand five-star reviews are pretty good evidence that my book may be just the one to get you coding JavaScript successfully.

"Mark Myers' method of getting what can be...difficult information into a format that makes it exponentially easier to consume, truly understand, and synthesize into real-world application is beyond anything I've encountered before." —Amazon reviewer Jason A. Ruby

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00H1W9I6C
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (November 28, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 28, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2261 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1497408180
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: You actually LEARN something by using this book.
Review: I have been trying to teach myself Javascript for a while now. The problem I keep running into is, most of the tutorials, books and courses are written for people that already understand the material, or basic programming. Another problem is the other courses give you lots of information, but no lessons so you can put what you have studied to work. This book is different. It's written in a way that is understandable, without talking down to the reader. Also, as the lessons become more advanced, it continually introduces elements of earlier lessons, so you don't have to re-learn the things you learned before. I am so impressed with this teaching material, that I am taking time from one of my learning sessions, just to write this review. This is the best money I've spent on any learning material in a long time. Thank you to the author.

Reviewer: BeckyC
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This is the way to learn the basic structure of a programming language...
Review: I have previously reviewed Mark's HTML/CSS book which I had to learn in tandem while learning JavaScript in this book. I am very enthusiastic about learning coding this way, as an older person who has an in-born love for computer programming but is intimidated by the thought of having to try to remember things I've learned (not nearly as easy to do as when I was young).Since I have now gotten used to the general concepts of coding that cross platforms (I have now learned some PHP at free sites online, also with a PHP/MySQL book purchased from Amazon, and am now also working my way through Mark's Python book), I realize even more how helpful teaching like this is for either beginners or someone like me who learned some programming languages long ago but needed a reboot having forgotten much of what I'd originally learned. Mark uses the same type of starting examples across his different books, they are simple to understand and he starts out very easy, plainly laid out so that you are able to grasp the underlying mechanisms at play.One thing to note is he doesn't get into any detail about regular expressions. In the chapter that touches on it, he openly expresses that. As I'm here to learn how to fluently code with confidence, at first I was a little concerned about this, but there are places I can find online to go into further depth on this subject, which sounds a little confusing. As this book is quite long and in depth aside from that, I'm not sure how much more getting deeper into RegEx would've extended this book. So, when you consider that getting this book in Kindle, e-reader format is so very inexpensive (you just download the Amazon reader app to your computer and start working on it through there, the links at the end of the chapters will open your browser to practice what you just learned), a person can easily afford other teaching materials to go into more depth on that subject if you so desired.Having looked at some other reviews of the chapter practice sessions, I feel the need to state that I've never had an issue with any of the peculiarities of learning code this way. The author has to structure the practices with precise number of spaces in certain areas, etc., as this is an automated system, not an AI system, of checking what you entered to see if it's a workable way of completing the required task, so the rigidness of the practice is necessary. It's the short chapters and immediate, multiple question practice that is the overwhelming strength of this book. I can't really imagine a different way now that I've tried this way.Originally I had tried taking lots of notes (to help my old memory) and then doing the practice at the end of each chapter. I realized at one point about halfway through this book that I had to go through the HTML/CSS book in order to be able to work with JavaScript for webpages. Once I finished that book, I went back through the first JavaScript chapters again rapid-fire, because I'd already lost some confidence in my memory of what I'd already learned with JavaScript (kids out there, getting old sucks that way!). That way of going through the book works really well, I found (that's how I am now going through Mark's Python book). I also discovered that I did in fact retain more than I believed I did, this way of learning truly works!

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Highly effective and Innovative way to learn Javascript...$$cheap$$.
Review: I was working through another book, Head First Javascript Programming (HFJP), when a colleague clued me in to this book. I think that HFJP is a good book too but I wanted to ramp up quickly. I am an experienced C# programmer and I found myself getting bogged down in HFJP because it is a book designed for beginner programmers.A Smarter Way to Learn Javascript (SWLJ) is also covering a lot of things I already know (it also targets a lot of things I already know.) But with SWLJ I will be able to move through the topics quickly and get pretty quickly to the dynamic and quirky features of Javascript that I am trying to wrap my brain around.The technique in the book is very innovative. He takes a complex topic and divides it up into bite-sized chunks. The reading and exercises are extremely well-thought out and only requires you to know what is being covered in the current chapter and past chapters. Each chapter logically builds on previous chapters. The tecnnique is simple. Read (<10 mins), do the exercises (<25 mins), take a walk. (I think that the last step is pretty important...who knows what the brain does when we reduce our cognitive load after cognitive work....it helps us memorize better though.)Many of the 4-star reviewers mention the frustration of having the get the exercises EXACTLY right. And I DO sympathize with this complaint to some extent. Even your white space (spaces and carriage returns) have to be exactly right. BUT you get a chance to do the ones you miss again at the end.And I think you have to realize that requiring you to do the exercises using a certain style of coding is a VERY GOOD thing. Many employers REQUIRE you to code a certain way (using a style guide) and even have built in code checkers to be sure programmers are doing it a certain way. (Sound familiar...that's what Mark is doing). I am pretty sure that all of the conventions Mark asks you to use are COMMON conventions. And if you are not required to follow a style guide as a programmer you should adopt your own anyway (why not Marks?) It will make reading your code easier for other programmers.Finally I wanted to talk about cost The Kindle version of the book is <$7.00 and the exercises are free. By comparison I paid over $30.00 for HFJP. What do you have to lose really? You can get this book for the price of your next Venti Latte. Give it a try.Seth Reviewer: wnkyylrrf
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Each chapter is small and concise, very easy to follow. The online quiz also helps greatly. Must read if you are new to JavaScript

Reviewer: Ananda kumar
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great book for learning JS fundamentals, explained sweetly

Reviewer: ottik
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Das Buch ist so aufgebaut das man von Anfang an alles von Grund auf ausarbeitet, jeder kann mit diesem Buch Javascript lernen.

Reviewer: najmudheen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Every concept is clear

Reviewer: Israel Martinez
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: El libro tiene un estilo muy condensado del lenguaje, sirve muy bien para aprender y despuès poder profundizar en el tema con otros libros y o tutoriales, ya que lo basico esta bien explicado