This article will teach you GraphQL as well as how to build a small JavaScript server.

Building Your First GraphQL Server


<img alt="Black and white photograph of a surfer" height="972" src="/images/blog/finding-motivation-in-chaos/surfer.webp" title="Image by [Tim Marshall](https://unsplash.com/@timmarshall) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com)" width="1728">

# Finding Motivation in Chaos

---

> There are times in my life when I write almost more for myself than for others. It's usually about something I'm struggling with. Writing helps me process life experiences.
>
> This article was one of those times. I hope it helps you too.

---

## Introduction

I’ve told several of my friends recently that I write best about what I know.

Well, this is what I know: As of when I'm writing this, the last year has been pure chaos in my life, and it’s been all I can do to hold on with both hands. This isn’t anything unique to me; so many people are struggling this year. In the heart of the all of this, it’s been all I can do to focus on work.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped being able to write as much, tweet as much, or code a lot in my free time. I even have trouble finding time to play the guitar now.

When this happens — when I don’t get to express myself or create — I find myself circulating in a negative mental cycle.

“You should be writing more” becomes “You are lazy.”

“You should be coding more” becomes “You’re failing.”

“Nate, you should cut yourself some slack. Also, others have it way worse.” You’re right. I should, and they do. But this is the way the human mind works, and so it’s the mental struggle I’ve been dealing with this year.

I also think what I’ve said so far might resonate with a lot of you.

Today, I want to talk about motivation: what it is, why it might look very different from what you think, and how to get it back if you feel like you’ve lost it.

As always, get yourself a cup of some hot beverage (I’m drinking hot cocoa as I type this).

It’s cold outside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be warm. ☕️

---

> “I accept chaos, I’m not sure whether it accepts me.”
>
> — Bob Dylan

---

## Do the Things, Be the Things

It’s been said that we shouldn’t tell others what we plan on accomplishing in the future, as the mere act of doing so gives us a dopamine rush. When people praise us for our goals, our brain feels successful and validated. Ironically, we’re now _less_ likely to complete that task. Our brain thinks we’re done.

I’d also argue that it’s just as dangerous to think about what we _should_ be accomplishing at some point in the future. I read once that most people’s unhappiness stems from the difference between how they think their lives should turn out and what actually happens.

If I staunchly believe I should own a house, be married, and have a white picket fence with 2.5 kids by the time I’m 21, I might end up being a very stressed person if I’m 22, single, searching for a job, and living in an apartment the size of a closet.

When people say they’re struggling with motivation, really what they often mean is that they think they haven’t completed anything lately that they’re proud of.

The heart of the problem is usually that they’ve tied their self-worth to their ability to complete an arbitrary task defined by either society or their own mind.

_(The thought in the sentence above is a brand new revelation for me. I realized it about myself right as I was typing it out for you. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that writing can’t be therapeutic.)_

But life isn’t just about goals. Human beings aren’t robots that check boxes.

As the cliché goes, “Life is about the journey.” What if this is true of motivation? What if being motivated isn’t about the goals you achieve? What if being motivated is persisting yourself through whatever comes your way?

_(I wrote an [article back in 2019 on this](https://www.nathanthomas.dev/blog/the-pursuit-of-personal-fulfillment) that I apparently didn’t internalize.)_

I’ve had a mounting suspicion lately that we all think about motivation in the wrong way. It’s not just about what you accomplish.

---

> “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
>
> — John Lennon

---

## Accomplishments are Retroactive

If motivation isn’t about accomplishments, then what is it all about?

The best way to approach motivation is to ask yourself what the most important thing is to _you_ that you should be doing in that moment.

The stoic philosophers had an idea called “memento mori,” or “remember that you must die.” The idea was that you could die at any moment, so keep that thought in your mind to focus your attention in life onto what really matters to you.

Should you be reading that book? Working hard to make money to buy a house for your family? Writing a song? Coding an app as a side project?

The problem with defining happiness based on _completion_ of goals is that they’re so often impossible to completely define; the goalposts keep moving as life moves on.

If you told yourself that you want to be a gifted musician, you might give up in the first month if you still couldn’t absolutely shred. But if your desire is to learn to play the guitar, then you’re already fulfilling that promise the first time you play a C chord.

You’re much more likely to continue doing something if your desire stems from wanting to do the learning (or building) action, not the finishing one.

If we’re inspired by this long enough to keep creating, we often look backwards and see how much we’ve accomplished.

It’s this point that others look at with admiration.

It’s this point that so many people hang all of their hopes and dreams on.

It’s this point that causes so much unhappiness for others when their expectations do not end up matching reality.

---

<img alt="Foggy beach in Northern California" height="1125" src="/images/blog/finding-motivation-in-chaos/beach.webp" width="1795">

---

## Inaction is a Slow Death

If there is something comforting in all of this talk about motivation, it’s this — Everyone who has tried learning a new skill or habit has experienced failures. It comes with the territory. You have to be prepared to fail (especially in the beginning) when you’re learning a new skill.

This should be an encouraging thought, since it ultimately frees you to pursue what you want.

For instance, I often think of this scene from the show [Adventure Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Time) when talking about failure:

<img alt="Jake the Dog from Adventure Time saying, 'Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sort of good at something'" height="266" src="/images/blog/finding-motivation-in-chaos/jake-the-dog-advice.gif" width="474">

So many people stay in stasis because it’s safer for them to stand still and never experience failure than to be pushing for what they want and are passionate about in life. They’re scared others will judge them if they don’t succeed.

Notice a trend here?

Once again, our mind’s end goal is forcing us into unrealistic expectations of how our journey will be.

Instead of this, recognize that true success is in just _moving_ in a certain direction. This is a victory all by itself, as you can always pivot and adjust course later.

When teaching students how to code at Code Tenderloin, I sometimes see students upset that they made a small mistake. But I always remind them that it’s actually an advantage — Now that mistake is permanently burned into their mind, and they’ll likely never make it again.

A weakness has become a strength.

It’s the same way with our motivation. If we focus on the journey and not some end goal, we can be thankful in the moment for when we mess up because it’s made us even stronger.

---

> “The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
>
> — Theodore Roosevelt

---

## Success is a Team Sport

There’s one more point I’d like to make about finding motivation, what it is, and how it relates into what we feel — Motivation is often found through collaboration and communion with others.

There’s a quote in the book [Debugging Through Teams](https://www.amazon.com/Debugging-Teams-Productivity-through-Collaboration/dp/1491932058) by Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman that says, “Lone craftsman are extremely rare — and even when they do exist, they don’t perform superhuman achievements in a vacuum; their world-changing accomplishment is almost always the result of a spark of inspiration followed by a heroic team effort.”

Motivation is extremely easy to find (and sustain) in groups. It’s much harder to develop on your own at your desk at 11:35 pm on a random Tuesday.

When people think of how Apple started, they often think of the legend of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, laboring away in a little garage in Los Altos, California.

But what people often don’t realize is that Jobs and Wozniak quickly hired a team around them who helped lay the foundation for what Apple is today. Apple never would have succeeded if it had just stayed the two of them.

If you’re struggling with motivation, perhaps it’s time to start working with those around you to produce something insanely great. Focus on what you’re passionate about and go from there.

You might be surprised what your group of believers can turn out.

---

> “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
>
> — Nelson Mandela

---

## Embrace the Chaos, Find Motivation

Instead of fighting with how your week, month, or year is going, notice instead how you have succeeded within it. Appreciate when you’ve taken steps to work on yourself, your friends and family, and your hobbies.

Carve out some moments in the coming days to practice and build projects that you’re passionate about.

Don’t worry about what this will look like a year or two from now, since most of us can barely predict what we’ll eat for lunch today (let alone tomorrow).

Finally, think about gathering up people like you to work on ideas together. There’s strength in numbers.

If you take these steps, I promise you’ll look up one day down the road and realize that you’re somehow motivated in a way you couldn’t have previously imagined while also having a series of achievements that you’re proud of.

---

Thanks for reading. 🔥

Nathan


Change is a constant in life. The only thing that matters is that you keep working on yourself.

Finding Motivation in Chaos


<img alt="Black and white photograph of fisherman" height="912" src="/images/blog/the-pursuit-of-persistence-and-grit/fishermen.webp" title="Image by [Christie Kim](https://unsplash.com/@christieckim) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com)" width="1368">

# The Pursuit of Persistence and Grit

---

> This article was written right at a crucial point in my life. I had been unemployed, went through a coding bootcamp, and then got a job less than a year later at Twitter.
>
> I keep it here on my blog because I still very much resonate with its words (and I have a hunch that you might too).

---

## The Obstacle is the Way

Writing is, almost by definition, a solitary activity. Despite our human need for interaction with others, it’s often in the quiet moments of the day that inspiration comes to us.

That’s how I find myself this evening as I write this article for you. As I sit in front of my computer with a hot cup of tea beside me, I find myself thinking back over the last few months of my life.

Since I wrote my last article, I’ve finished the full stack web development curriculum at Lambda School, completed yet another build week with my classmates, and accepted a position as Section Leader with the school’s incoming Web 19 cohort (the 19th full-time group to go through the curriculum).

I’d be lying if I said it was easy. I’d be lying if I said it was always fun. But has it been worth it?

---

> “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
>
> — Mark Twain

---

## On Pressure and Diamonds

It’s been said that the secret sauce to finding success in life is to have grit. (It’s [Josh Knell](https://twitter.com/TheBigKnell). He said that.) The ability to grind it out and push through all the mundane, hard, and otherwise tough details of life that turn many others away is often what separates those who reach success from those who don’t.

If you’d have told me a year ago that I’d soon be headed towards a fairly promising career in software development, I wouldn’t have believed you. But 12 months and countless hours of studying later, here I am. It’s funny how much a person can change in a single year. In this span of time, I’ve gone from a business-minded healthcare employee to a code-dreaming, wide-eyed engineer.

<img alt="Black and white image of mountains" height="1067" src="/images/blog/the-pursuit-of-persistence-and-grit/mountains.webp" title="Image by [Radio Pink](https://unsplash.com/@radiopinkfloyd) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)" width="1600">

At Lambda School, one of the core virtues students are taught outside of writing eloquent and excellent code is the ability to persist themselves through any obstacles set in their path. This resolve, when properly seasoned with empathy, allows leaders to be formed. It allows students to walk in the door from any direction and emerge with the confidence and drive to move mountains.

Taking this pressure and turning it into pure diamonds is always up to the individual, but I’m proud to say that I’ve already seen this success story in action countless times from those who surround me here. Lambda School students are landing jobs at prestigious companies and leveraging their grit to bring them and their employers success. It’s not luck, though. You need to know that these students study night and day for these types of opportunities. In case you’re wondering, this can easily mean 7:30am until midnight every weekday including extra time on weekends for 9 months.

But hard is not the same thing as bad, and easy is not the same thing as good. Robert Frost once wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” I think about those words sometimes while writing lines of code. The hard path is never very well traveled.

---

> “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
>
> — President John F. Kennedy

---

## Hold onto the Fire, Ignite the World

When I started at Lambda, I was told by an alumnus to “Keep the fire alive no matter how weakly or strongly it burns.” (You can find that quote in a [repository](https://github.com/nwthomas/programming-resources) I made of advice from Lambda School graduates.)

My fire was tested in the middle of the last build week at Lambda School. While refactoring server code, implementing application features, and writing tests using time that I honestly did not think I had, I was faced with immense pressure; I would code all day, spend time with my father who landed in the hospital with emergent and serious health issues, and somehow budget my remaining time gearing up to be a solid leader for the largest full stack web development cohort Lambda has ever seen within 72 hours of being hired.

<img alt="Black and white photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge" height="864" src="/images/blog/the-pursuit-of-persistence-and-grit/golden-gate-bridge.webp" title="Image by [Abigail Keenan](https://unsplash.com/@akeenster) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)" width="1296">

It was hard. But do you know what I wanted to do each morning after those long nights? _I wanted to code_. The fire was still there.

There’s a special feeling that comes from pursuing what you love through obstacles in your path. It’s the satisfaction of living life to your full potential and realizing a skill that you might not previously have thought attainable. Lambda School has that feeling in spades, and it’s everywhere I look.

Since I’ve been a section leader, I’ve seen my classmates (who are now my colleagues while working as my 18 project managers/teacher’s assistants) bending over backwards to teach new students how to code. I see a new generation of developers with dreams and goals for their world and their families, and it’s inspiring to me.

---

## Conclusion

If you’re struggling right now with where you’re at in life, keep your head up; don’t focus on what you can’t control. Instead, bring a laser focus to what really matters to you; If you mess up, don’t stress out too much, but don’t take the easy path if the hard one is what will ultimately make you happy. Thomas Edison supposedly said,“I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 1,000 ways to _not_ make a lightbulb.”

I’ve realized in retrospect that the hard work of learning this content was always worth the price of admission, even when I questioned it. My path hasn’t always been easy, but has it been worth it?

Every single second.

Nathan ☕️


Hard things are worth doing. Push through the feeling of wanting to stop.

The Pursuit of Persistence and Grit


<img alt="Black and white photograph of man surfing" height="964" src="/images/blog/the-pursuit-of-personal-fulfillment/man-surfing.webp" title="Image by [Alex Braga](https://unsplash.com/@awbraga) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com)" width="1450">

# The Pursuit of Personal Fulfillment

---

> This article was written right before I got my first job in tech.
>
> I keep it here on my blog because I still love what it says (and I have a suspicion that you might too).

---

## You May Say That I’m a Dreamer

A warm summer breeze is drifting through the window this evening. I’m sitting here staring at a blank electric page, and I’m struck by nostalgia.

It’s been two years (almost to the day) since I lost my job in healthcare. In those two years, I’ve seen friends I hadn’t seen since university, led a healthcare wellness program to a level that was recognized by Forbes, and spent a lot of time searching. The last eight months have been consumed by my time at Lambda School, and the most recent 3 have been as a section lead (which means I manage 160 students and 20 project managers).

As I’m drawing to the end of this role at Lambda, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what people really want when they say they’re trying to “find their purpose.” Back when I was job hunting pre-Lambda School, I used to put a lot of thought into what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life. It was stressful. How can you find answers when you don’t even know the right questions?

I recently realized that it’s been eight months since I asked myself that. I’ve found something I love, and I’ve stopped thinking about questions like “is this what I’m meant to do?” Could it be that self-fulfillment is something viewed only in the rearview mirror of life instead of being actively pursued as a goal in-and-of-itself?

Grab your coffee, tea, or something good. ☕️

Sit down.

Let’s talk.

---

> “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
>
> ― John Lennon

---

## It’s All About the Journey 🚗

Before I started my journey into web development and software engineering, I spent a solid six months job hunting and interviewing with lots of startups.

During that time, I started having lots of second thoughts about the direction I was headed. I started wondering the big questions in life like “What makes me happy?” and “Why do dogs love us so much when we basically trap them in our homes, regulate when they get to eat and poop, and only take them on walks a couple times a day?”

Every choice I faced was viewed through my own self-imposed lens of artificial pressure. By trying to “find my purpose,” I was actually telling myself that every choice I made was high-stakes. Everything became important. There was no room to play and be creative. There was no room to make mistakes.

I was miserable.

<img alt="Black and white photograph of waves at the beach" height="933" src="/images/blog/the-pursuit-of-personal-fulfillment/beach.webp" title="Image by [Annie Spratt](https://unsplash.com/@anniespratt) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)" width="1400">

Somewhere along the way, I got it into my head that I wanted to make a personal blog. I didn’t expect anyone else to read it, but I wanted my own corner of the internet to record my thoughts.

When I couldn’t figure out how to customize Wordpress templates, I turned to the Internet to teach me a bit more about CSS and HTML. When I got stuck on animations and JavaScript, I enrolled in [The Odin Project](https://www.theodinproject.com/) out of a passing interest since it was free. When I needed additional coaching, I decided to take a free intro course from [Lambda School](https://www.bloomtech.com/). It couldn’t hurt, right?

At no point in this journey was I focused on web development or software engineering as an eventual career. I didn’t see my passions and hobbies finding their own way and taking on a life of their own. I was so focused on what I thought fulfilled me that I couldn’t see what I actually loved. It wasn’t until my family started pointing out how much I seemed to love writing code that I woke up to what was happening.

Even after that, it took a friend to pull me aside and tell me that “You could totally do this as a career, man” before I decided to step off that ledge into the unknown (credit to my friend [Joseph Cawood](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-cawood-mshi/) for that conversation — He spends every day battling data in Python and R at UC Davis to make this world a better place). I enrolled in Lambda School.

---

> “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today.”
>
> — Steve Jobs

---

## A Life Viewed in Reverse ⏮

The world needs more people who take things one day at a time and who focus on what really matters to them. There’s a quote from a Calvin and Hobbes comic where Calvin says, “If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”

Telling yourself that every decision you make needs to lead towards some vague pursuit of a future “purpose” sounds like a terrible way to go through life. Steve Jobs certainly seemed to think so in the quote before this section.

Forcing yourself to plan for what your unknown future self wants is an impossible journey; learning how to find personal value in what you’re doing every day is not. If you would have asked Steve if he thought his life had purpose, I’m absolutely certain he’d have responded with a “Yes.”

Before you say “This is a dumb article, Nate” and egg my house, notice that I’m not saying preparation for the future, setting goals, and planning are bad things. Those are all crucial pieces of the puzzle for anyone who wants to achieve anything great. But there is a certain element of personal reflection needed in order to focus on what both grows you as a person while also pursuing daily value and meaning.

It’s hard to find that elusive feeling of purpose when you’re always looking into the future for the answers. The thing about the future is that it never actually arrives.

---

<img alt="Man in waves at the ocean" height="927" src="/images/blog/the-pursuit-of-personal-fulfillment/man-in-waves.webp" title="Image by [Cherry Laithang](https://unsplash.com/@laicho) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/)" width="1400">

---

## Turning up Gold

It’s been said that a major source of dissatisfaction in our lives is the gap between our expectations and reality. When we expect some future where we’ll finally feel complete, we start to feel an intense disconnect and bitterness with how our lives turned out if we never reach it.

Most people focus on their daily grind and see all of life’s imperfections. They see the stressors, and they long for a day when all of those things just magically disappear. This is the mindset that makes most people spend their lives wishing for a future that, quite frankly, will never arrive. As John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

When you focus on your daily fulfillment, you start to sort out all of the fluff that seemed so necessary to you before, and new passions and character qualities in your life that were previously overlooked start surfacing. If this happens to you, I would highly encourage you to pursue them. You never know when one of these loose threads might tug and pull you into a life or a career that’s better than you could have dreamed.

Although I can’t anticipate the future, it’s opportunities, or it’s stressors, I do know that I’m really grateful to be where I’m at. I’m passionate about what I get to do every day, and I find my fulfillment in that.

---

Thanks for reading. 🔥

Nathan


Life is what you make it. Your reality is flexible and will give to your efforts.

The Pursuit of Personal Fulfillment


<img alt="Typescript log on a white wall background" height="700" src="/images/blog/how-to-become-a-typescript-badass/typescript-on-wall.webp" width="1050">

# Becoming a TypeScript Badass

---

> TypeScript fundamentally shifted the way I think about JavaScript and paved the way for me to learn other strongly-typed languages.
>
> Every hour you spend learning it will pay dividends down the road. I've even been known to say that "TypeScript is my love language."

---

## Why TypeScript?

If you're a member of the JavaScript community, you have likely at least heard about the new(ish) popular kid on the block - [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/).

When I was learning JavaScript several years ago, I distinctly remember thinking, "Why would I ever need to strongly type out JavaScript? That sounds like a lot of extra work, and I already know what my JavaScript types are doing."

Don't be like past Nate.

If you invest some time up-front into learning TypeScript, you'll discover that typing out your JavaScript prevents errors in your code and saves you from being angrily strangled by your coworkers (also, it's becoming an in-demand job skill for engineers).

Let's hop into some code so you can learn for yourself why TypeScript is so awesome. By the end of this article, you'll know how to setup TypeScript, work with the basic (and some complex) types, and why you should explore this world even more.

Let's begin. 🎉

---

> “Hustle beats talent when talent doesn’t hustle”
>
> – Ross Simmonds

---

## Firing Up TypeScript

The first thing we're going to do is go ahead and install TypeScript on your machine by running this commend in your terminal:

```bash
npm install -g typescript
```

After that, the next thing you need to do is clone down a [repository](https://github.com/nwthomas/typescript-article-code) I've made for you to practice the rest of the code in this article.

After that, open up the repo in your text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of choice.

I've created a `solution` folder for you in that repo that you can peak into if you get stuck at any step of the way. Try not to look in it though, because it's a lot more fun to write out the code yourself. Do your work in the `problem` folder. I've made files there in advance that you can fill out as we go through the article.

What I want you to do first is to `cd` into the `problem/initial-setup` folder. Go ahead and open up the file inside called `initialSetup.ts`.

Next, I want you to write a `console.log` inside this file that prints out some string. It can be anything you want. Make it something fun.

Finally, in your terminal (which should still be "inside" the `problem/initial-setup` directory), run this command:

```bash
tsc initialSetup.ts
```

Notice how, after just one second, a file called initialSetup.js appears alongside your TypeScript file in the directory?

You just transpiled your first TypeScript file to JavaScript. 🎉

This is how you can do things like write server code in TypeScript and have it run in production as JavaScript.

Congrats. In ~5 minutes, you've gone from not knowing anything about TypeScript to having it installed and knowing how to transpile it into JavaScript.

I'm going to grab a snack from the fridge to celebrate. You should too. 🍪

---

> “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”
>
> – Maya Angelou

---

## Learning the Basics

Now that we now how to transpile code into JavaScript, we can start digging into syntax.

First, let's go ahead and open up the file inside `problem/types` called `simpleDataTypes.ts`.

The first thing you need to know about types in TypeScript is how to type out JavaScript's 5 basic primitives (excluding `symbols`, the 6th type, which we won't be talking about in this article since they are rarely used by most developers):

1. `boolean`
2. `string`
3. `number`
4. `undefined`
5. `null`

Note that the TypeScript type `any` can be used when you want to accept any value (although this is not good practice since it defeats the whole point of using types).

Go ahead and write out the following in your `simpleDataTypes.ts` file:

```typescript
const exampleNumber: string = 100;
```

This new syntax, specifically the colon `:` and the `string` word, are ways of telling TypeScript what the variable is supposed to be. It's supposed to be a `string`.

However, there's a problem here. 😞 You probably already noticed it.

Since we assigned a `number` type (`100`) to a variable that's supposed to be of type `string`, TypeScript is unhappy. You should get an error that looks very close to this:

<img alt="VS Code screenshot of TypeScript error" height="224" src="/images/blog/how-to-become-a-typescript-badass/vscode-typescript-error.jpg" title="(Sorry for the junky screenshot)" width="1046">

This is what it looks like when TypeScript is trying to tell us that we're doing something dumb, like [tucking a caffe latte under our shirt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TysjNDTWEBc).

Go ahead and change that `string` type to use `number`:

```typescript
const exampleNumber: number = 100;
```

Notice how the error clears up right away?

This is the benefit of TypeScript - Immediate, precise feedback on your types. This might not seem like such an advantage in a small file with one line of code. In fact, this might even seem like it's a little annoying to have to write.

But just imagine how nice this type checking might be in a massive codebase when dozens of people are working on the same code. 😰

What if you could ensure that other developers would have an error if they tried to accidentally assign the wrong type to a variable imported from a different area of the application? That's exactly where the power of TypeScript comes in.

Let's go ahead and try out a few more types.

Write the following lines of code in your `simpleDataTypes.ts` file:

```typescript
const exampleString: string = "Test";

const exampleBoolean: boolean = true;

const exampleNull: null = null;

const exampleUndefined: undefined = undefined;

const exampleVoid: void = null;
```

These nicely demonstrate the remaining primitive types that you might use in JavaScript.

However, the really cool next step is that we don't _always_ have to define the types of our variables. If it's a primitive value, we can actually just leave them off if we want. TypeScript will _infer_ it from the assigned value.

Here's the same code with TypeScript inferring the type from the assigned initial value:

```typescript
const exampleNumberTwo = 100;

const exampleStringTwo = "Test";

const exampleBooleanTwo = true;

const exampleNullTwo = null;

const exampleUndefinedTwo = undefined;

const exampleVoidTwo = undefined;
```

The obvious next question is, "Why would we ever use types on a variable if TypeScript can just infer them?"

I'm glad you asked.

First, sometimes you'll want to declare a variable before you assign it a value (e.g. like `let value: string;`). Adding the type when the variable is defined will explicitly set it for the future even if an initial value hasn't been added yet.

Second, stating specific types allows us to type out more complex data types (like objects and arrays). Let's go ahead and take a look at that in the next section.

Now's a great time to refill that nice beverage you've been sipping on. ☕️

---

> “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
>
> \- Winston Churchill

---

## Objects, Arrays, and TypeScript

Now that we know how the primitive data types get typed out in TypeScript (that was a very repetitive line to write out), it's time to learn how to set up typing for some more complex scenarios (like objects and arrays).

The first thing you need to know is that TypeScript has something called an interface, and you can use it to define objects. It is, in fact, a "keyword" restricted to that purpose. If that doesn't make sense, it will in just a second.

Go ahead and open up the file called `complexDataTypes.ts` in the `types` folder for the next few examples.

For instance, suppose you have a function like this:

```typescript
function printLabel(labeledObj: { label: string }) {
  console.log(labeledObj.label);
}
```

Notice how we have a parameter (`labeledObj`) and we've defined a type on it inside the parentheses? That's how we can type out an object!

While this will run as valid TypeScript, having the type inside the parentheses looks a little messy. Let's try to clean up the typing by doing this:

```typescript
interface LabeledObjWithInterfaceKeyword {
  label: string;
}

function printLabelWithInterfaceKeyword(
  labeledObj: LabeledObjWithInterfaceKeyword
) {
  console.log(labeledObj.label);
}
```

We've just abstracted the parameter's type out into it's own "thing," the interface called `LabeledValue` defined above the function `printLabel`. We then assign that interface as the type of the parameter with the `labeledObj: LabeledValue`.

We can then easily add more key-value pairs to this object like so:

```typescript
interface LabeledObjWithInterfaceKeyword {
  label: string;
  value: number;
}

function printLabelWithInterfaceKeyword(
  labeledObj: LabeledObjWithInterfaceKeyword
) {
  console.log(labeledObj.label, labeledObj.value);
}
```

In addition to using the `interface` keyword, the second way that we can type an object is through the `type` keyword.

Here's an example of the same code above but using `type`:

```typescript
type LabeledObjWithTypeKeyword = {
  label: string;
  value: number;
};

function printLabelWithTypeKeyword(labeledObj: LabeledObjWithTypeKeyword) {
  console.log(labeledObj.label, labeledObj.value);
}
```

It's almost exactly the same because it's an [alias](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing_(computing)>) of `interface`. There are some subtle differences between `type` and `interface` (like not being able to use [merging interfaces](https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/declaration-merging.html) with the `type` keyword), but they really aren't relevant to our discussion today and will honestly be too confusing.

Don't worry about them.

For now, choose one that you like (I'd recommend `interface` if you're on the fence) and roll with it. 👍🏻

Finally, let's briefly look through the two ways that you can define arrays in TypeScript. They're both quite straightforward, and it's again down to your preference on which one you should use:

```typescript
// First way of typing out arrays
const arrayOfNumbers1: number[] = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

// Second way of typing out arrays
const arrayOfNumbers2: Array<number> = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
```

Note that the second way is probably cleaner if you want to designate that it's something more complex like an array of objects:

```typescript
// Object type
interface ExampleObject {
  label: string;
  value: number;
}

// Array of object types
const arrayOfExampleObjects: Array<ExampleObject> = [
  { label: "label1", value: 1 },
  { label: "label2", value: 2 },
  { label: "label3", value: 3 },
];
```

As you can see, we've already reached a nice point where we've built up to some interesting type combinations. Let's take it one step further with typing out classes.

Go ahead and refill that delicious drink you made earlier.

We're going into the home stretch. ✌🏻

<img alt="White wall with ivy to the left side of it" height="667" src="/images/blog/how-to-become-a-typescript-badass/ivy-wall.webp" width="1000">

## Classes: Complex and Beautiful

The last thing we're going to do is learn the fundamentals of working with classes in TypeScript. Then, I'll leave you with a bunch of resources that you can use to continue your journey.

I want you to go ahead and go into the `classes` folder and open up the `classes.ts` file. Then, create a `class` and `interface` that look like this:

```typescript
interface Movie {
  year: number;
  name: string;
}

class Movie {
  year: number;
  name: string;

  constructor(movie: Movie) {
    this.year = movie.year;
    this.name = movie.name;
  }

  getMovieYear() {
    return this.name + " was made in " + this.year;
  }
}
```

There's a few things to notice here. First, we have two class variables called `year` and `name` inside our `Movie` class that we've defined as `number` and `string` types. Second, we have an `interface` that defines the object type that the class' constructor function is taking in, and we are then assigning values from inside that object to the class' variables.

Finally, we have a new method that uses both of these class variables to return a string.

Can you see how everything you've learned so far about TypeScript meshes nicely into the existing class syntax in JavaScript?

Go ahead and try running the command `tsc classes.ts` in this folder to transpile this file. When the `classes.js` file is created, take a look in the file to see what this class transpiles to in JavaScript. 👍🏻

We can use TypeScript's type definitions on our class variables and parameters in the constructor and methods, ensuring that we always know types they will be expecting and using.

You can find out more about classes and how they relate to TypeScript by reading up on them [here](https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/classes.html).

---

> "Beautiful things don’t ask for attention."
>
> \- Unknown

---

## Other Resources

There's lots of interesting things in TypeScript that we haven't discussed yet in this article. It was meant to give you a quick intro, but this is where the real fun begins for you.

For instance, have you been wondering what that mysterious little `tsconfig.json` file is in the repo you've been working in for this article?

Well, you can now jump in feet-first into TypeScript's powerful and passionate community to learn about customizing that file and much more.

While there are limitless resources out there on Google, here are three interesting points to start the rest of your journey into a statically-typed future:

1. [TypeScript Docs](https://www.typescriptlang.org/) - The official documentation on TypeScript is excellent and will save your butt if you use it
2. [TS-Node](https://github.com/TypeStrong/ts-node) - This runs a development server and can auto-transpile on save for you
3. [Deno](https://deno.land/) - A new JavaScript and TypeScript runtime that's a competitor for Node.js (in other words, no transpilation needed like we've been doing in this article

---

## Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on using TypeScript. It's such powerful tool that will supercharge your development process (especially if you're working with others).

Best of luck.

Thanks for reading. 🔥

Nathan


Have you always wanted to learn how to master TypeScript? In that case, this one is for you.