A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript : The New Approach That Uses Technology to Cut Your Effort in Half

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

A few years ago I set out to teach myself JavaScript by reading programming books. It was such a struggle that I decided I must have lost some learning ability over the years. Then it hit me... I wasn't a bad learner. The books were bad teachers! I fought my way through a dozen books, and by brute effort, learned JavaScript. But I had to design exercises for myself. Without practice, I couldn't retain anything. JavaScript, I learned, isn't that hard. The books make it hard. So I wrote a book that makes JavaScript easy. And, since exercises are the only way to make the knowledge stick, I programmed 1,750 of them for you. I'm a former lecturer in the Communications School of Boston University. I hold an A.B. from Harvard. My professional focus is on using technology to reduce the effort and tedium of learning, primarily through interactivity. I'm developing the "A Smarter Way to Learn" series on programming, a collection of instructional books paired with online interactive exercises. I run the website http: //www.ASmarterWayToLearn.com. Along with my wife Judy and our two politically-active cats, I live in Taos, NM, where I cook under the ghostly supervision of Marcella Hazan, read extensively, play showboat frisbee once a week, and long for more episodes of "Breaking Bad."