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joshBriley
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The Forever Project: Staying Curious (and Mostly Sane) in Web Development

Front end developer keeping current with web development trends

One of the weird challenges in web development is that you're expected to keep up with... basically everything. New frameworks. New accessibility standards. New browser APIs. New CSS tricks. New build tools. And that's just Monday.

Over the years, I've found that the only way to stay (mostly) current without losing my mind is to build a system that works for me. Not some "Ultimate 10x Engineer Productivity Method." Just real habits, real sources, real tinkering that fits into the way I actually think and work. Here's what it looks like.

Curated Email Newsletters

I lean on a few good newsletters to filter the flood of new information into something I can actually digest:

These are short, focused, and skimmable—which means I can keep an eye on what's happening without disappearing into five-hour YouTube rabbit holes every morning.

Following Smart People (So I Don't Have to Know Everything Myself)

I don't try to keep up with everything firsthand. Instead, I follow people who are smarter than me and learn from the trends they spot:

It's like building a custom Twitter feed that acts as my early warning system for important changes.

Subscriptions for Deeper Dives

When I want to go deeper, I lean on a few trusted subscriptions:

I don't try to "complete" every course. I treat them more like a workshop: pop in, build something, pop out with a new idea or skill sharpened.

A few courses that I have fully completed, recently purchased, and wholeheartedly recommend:

  • Joy of React by Josh W. Comeau: It's not just the React stuff that makes this course great—it's the way Josh teaches how to think about building user interfaces. The React content is top-notch, but the real value is in the mindset shifts.
  • Learn UX Design by Erik Kennedy: This probably isn't a course you'd expect to see on a web developer's list, but Erik's approach to UX design is incredibly practical and applicable to front-end work. Matter of fact, he started out in development and maintains a great balance between the two disciplines. It helped me think more critically about user flows and interface decisions.

Neither of these people know me, and have no idea I'm recommending their courses. I just think they're worth every penny. But, if they were compelled to send me a kickback or two, I wouldn't complain. :-)

Podcasts: I Tried. I Really Did.

I've dabbled in tech podcasts, but honestly, most of them aren't a great fit for me. Too much filler. Too many detours. Takes too long to get to the meat.

I'd rather read an article or watch a 5-minute deep dive video than listen to 40 minutes of small talk about someone's coffee order before they mention the actual topic of the podcast. No disrespect to the podcast world — it just doesn't match how my brain likes to learn.

Hands-On Tinkering

Production code is great, but it's not the best place to throw ideas at the wall to see sticks. Sometimes I just like to try new things without worrying about the things that production web apps need—security, performance, scalability, etc. Tinkering gives me the chance to try new frameworks, new strategies for working with APIs, etc.

I use design assets provided by Frontend Mentor and Great Frontends for this. They range in degrees of difficulty, offering a variety of project types to keep the creative juices flowing. Recently, I've starting building out a few of these projects using different frameworks to see how they handle the same problem. Here are a couple of examples:

Countries of the World API

I wrote a case study on this project, so I won't go into much detail here. Suffice it to say, hands-on work makes everything stick better than just reading about it. At least for me, it does.

Actual Side Projects

I have a rule that I try to stick to when it comes to side projects: Use this as an opportunity to learn something new. Side projects are rarely about the extra money for me. That means I try to avoid using the same stack or tools I use in my day job. Instead, I pick something that challenges me to learn new skills or deepen my understanding of existing ones. Whether that means a new headless CMS, a new framework, or even just a new way of thinking about state management, I try to keep it fresh.

Talking Shop with Other Developers

I'm lucky to have friends and peers who also work in the trenches. It's surprising how many musicians are also tech folks. Oh, did I mention that I'm also a musician? Details... Sometimes staying current just means having a casual conversation about the random quirks of the new Vue release, or swapping notes about weird browser bugs we've hit recently. A lot of good learning starts with, "Hey, have you seen this weird thing?"

Reviewing PRs

I learn a lot by reviewing other people's pull requests—and by having mine reviewed, too. You see different styles. Different ways to solve the same problem. Different ways to think about naming things, structuring components, or balancing performance vs clarity.

PRs are like mini crash courses in real-world front-end problem solving. I'm also liking the way that GitHub is starting to surface AI-generated suggestions for PRs. It's not perfect, but it can help highlight potential issues or improvements that I might have missed.

RTFM (Seriously.)

Sometimes the best way to get current is still the oldest way: Read The Flipping Manual. See what I did there? Yes, this is a family friendly blog. When a new framework, component, or API crosses my path, my first move is almost always to hit the docs directly. Not a YouTube tutorial. Not a blog post. The official docs.

OK, fine, sometimes I cheat and look for a blog post that summarizes the docs, but you get the idea. They're not always exciting, but they're the closest thing to "the source of truth" you'll find.

Right Click → Inspect (aka Stealing Like an Artist)

When I see something cool on a website, I don't assume it's magic. I right-click. I inspect the element. I view the source. Half the time, it's just really smart, simple CSS. The other half, I learn a new trick I never would've guessed just from looking. A recent right-click discovery was a technique for clicking through affordance gradient overlays on overflow containers. Thank you Josh W. Comeau for that one!

Hint: if you're on a mobile device, you can see this in action by scrolling up to the breadcrumb menu at the top of this page.

Browsing Project Source Code

Sometimes I'll pull up GitHub repos for open source projects or impressive product sites and just... poke around. It's messy. It's not a "lesson plan." But it's real-world code. Real-world tradeoffs. Real-world problem solving. Way more valuable than polished tutorials sometimes.

OK, I Think That About Covers It

Staying current doesn't mean chasing every new trend. For me, it's about keeping my eyes open, staying curious, and getting my hands dirty in lots of little ways.

I'm not trying to learn everything. I'm trying to keep learning something—every week, every project, every rabbit hole I fall down accidentally (or intentionally). It's messy. It's imperfect. And honestly, it's the best part of the job.