One popular thing with programmers these days is a thing called a “WOD”, or Workout of the Day. These are intended to be a warmup, or a short challenge to get you ready for a longer period of productivity. Having tried them for a while, I’ve found that while I enjoy programming small challenges, doing so under the pressure of competition is less useful. Oddly, this isn’t the case when I’m only seeing how fast I can go - removing an external benchmark removes the feeling of inferiority. This has inspired me to ease myself into a more competitive environment and strengthen my confidence so that I can work up to my ability in any condition.
I’ve found that JS is an excellent conduit for WODs. The modularity of the language allows a competent writer to put a complex thought into a sentence only a line long. This means that the Javascript program which results will be compact and readable. Of course, the more intricate designs require extensive commenting, but with a little practice anyone can get a gist of what a line does. In the context of a WOD, this means that there are endless ideas for little programs to be written, all of which do completely different things, but which can be stored on little more than the back of an envelope. Javascript has shown itself to be a useful tool which fits into any developer’s arsenal.