When I first started learning web development, React was my entry point. I followed tutorials from JSM, The Net Ninja Pro, and Fireship on YouTube. Back then, I was piecing together a MERN setup, trying to combine MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js to create a complete application. It felt like solving a puzzle one piece at a time.
Then I discovered Next.js (version 12 at the time), and everything clicked. Next.js felt like a full stack framework out of the box. It took away a lot of the glue code I was writing myself and handled routing, server-side rendering, and API routes with minimal configuration. From that moment on, I focused almost exclusively on Next.js alongside a handful of other tools that round out my daily workflow.
I still haven’t fully learned TypeScript, but I know it’s the next big step for me. Adding static types will reduce bugs and improve developer experience in larger projects. I plan to migrate my personal portfolio and a few sample apps to TypeScript in the coming weeks.