Part 1: Re-introduction

Ernie: Hey, JavaScript.

JavaScript: Oh. It’s you.

E: Yeah. So it’s been a while.

JS: Oh. It has.

E: I’m sorry I’ve been away so long. You know how it goes; it’s just been super busy the past couple of years. Being a low-level manager at all of that.

JS: Whatever. Do you have a question or…?

E: Anyway, I’ve been hitting some roadblocks getting promoted as an Engineering Lead or a Project Manager because everyone wants more experience. So I want to get reacquainted with you. Because… I’m applying for front-end roles again.

JS: (chuckles) Yeah? And how is that going?

E: Yeah, so, uh, it turns out that front-end jobs aren’t what they were like three or four years ago. I can’t even build a static page anymore because apparently that requires JavaScript.

JS: Duh. How did you do it before?

E: Uh, with HTML? And CSS?

JS: Well, that’s pedestrian. Are you telling me you haven’t used any JS frameworks?

E: I mean, I learned backbone a couple of years ago. And Angular.

JS: Angular 1? Or Angular 2, where Google invited everyone to Salt Lake City for a conference and told everyone they were rewriting everything over again, all from scratch, so the year or two you spent building things was completely obsolete?

E: (sigh) Angular 1. I was at that conference.

JS: Oh, you sweet summer child. In the time you were away, trying to talk about your “feelings,” I’ve met someone. Their name is React, and they’re required for 85% of the jobs in the market.

E: But I don’t know React.

JS: Hrrm. You shouldn’t have spent those three years teaching millennials how to set SMART goals then.

React: Hey. I’m from Facebook. Haven’t I seen you somewhere?

E: Yeah. I interviewed with Facebook four years ago. A nineteen-year-old interviewed me over video chat, and I got a rejection email like twenty minutes later.

React: Damn shame. You missed out on the free Segway rides between buildings.

JS: Listen, all you have to do to ever have a tech job again is to learn this completely new JavaScript library. No big deal. It’s not like your identity isn’t completely centered around web development or anything.

E: It kinda is.

JS: Well then. Get to studying, pork chop.

Part 2: Sometime later

E: (looking through React docs) What is this JSX nonsense? Like, HTML as JavaScript fragments? And since when has it been okay to inline CSS inside of JavaScript?

JS: Since React said so.

React: Facebook offers free mango lassis in our cafeteria.

Part 3: More time passes

E: This is insane. There are, like, two ways to write components. Half the docs on Google say one thing, the other half say the opposite. So which version do I learn?

JS: lol I dunno. Both?

E: For fuck’s sake.

React: Did you know Facebook offers an egg freezing policy? Because having a baby should never be on a product roadmap.

Part 4: Sometime after that

E: Hold on. You there, JavaScript; your syntax has completely changed, too. Did… did you get a makeover?

JS: Oh, ES6? This little thing? Do you love it?

E: I mean, I guess the ASCII arrows look good on you, I just… I knew you as someone else. I can still code with the old version of you, right?

JS: You could, in theory. But.

E: “But?”

JS: I mean, think about it. You’re doing coding interviews. People will be looking at your code. You could code the old way, and you wouldn’t be incorrect. But you don’t want people thinking you’re outdated, do you?

E: …

JS: Do you know who’s outdated? COBOL programmers. Do you know who a COBOL programmer was? Michael Douglas in the 1993 action thriller, Falling Down.

E: Michael Douglas isn’t a COBOL programmer. That was a role. He was acting.

JS: Suicide by cop. That’s how he dies.

E: Dude.

JS: (loud whisper) You’re gonna lose your shit, and a cop is gonna kill you.

Part 5: And some time after that

E: I think I’m getting the hang of you, React.

JS: Sweet. Now, look on the horizon.

E: What?

JS: Just look.

E: I don’t see OH JESUS, IS THAT A BLACK HOLE?

JS: It sure is. It’s called Redux. It’s a state manager. You get to learn 150 new terms and a whole bunch of boilerplate to go with them. It’s a rabbit hole. Or, you know, something a little more than a rabbit hole.

E: (screams as he’s sucked into the void) HOW DO NEW DEVELOPERS GET THIS?!

JS and React, in unison: They’re all half your age.

E: Oh.

FIN