Growing up in a typical strict African household always had a very clear structure, well at least for me.
There were rules. Not suggestions. Not “best practices.” Rules. You never really negotiated them, you just executed them.
You woke up early. You went to school. You came back on time. You didn’t always get the chance to “try things.” You mostly followed instructions.
If you messed up, there was usually a very immediate feedback loop.
Let’s just call it… real-time debugging. ("Kiboko")
Now fast forward to adulthood (or campus life, which feels like a soft launch into adulthood).
Suddenly:
- No one is asking where you are
- You can sleep at 3AM and call it “freedom”
- Food is no longer provided;it’s a budgeting problem
- And somehow, people are going out on weekdays like it’s normal("sherehe polite")
It feels like moving from a tightly controlled environment into an open-world sandbox with no manual.
And that’s exactly how learning JavaScript felt after coming from Go.
Go felt like home
Go is structured, strict, and predictable.It feels like that kind of upbringing where:
- There is a correct way to do things
- Mistakes are immediately pointed out
- You don’t get “creative freedom” with rules
- Everything has a clear, disciplined path
If you write something wrong, Go doesn’t argue with you.
It simply refuses to proceed.
Very “strict parent energy.”
JavaScript feels like campus life
Suddenly, everything is allowed.
Almost too allowed.
You can write things that technically work but feel emotionally wrong:
"5" + 1 // "51"
"5" - 1 // 4
And the language just… accepts it.
No questions. No intervention. No moral guidance.(This is where I would have been properly debugged)
Coming from Go, it feels like moving from mama's hot home-cooked meals, to a hostel where someone is boiling noodles in a sufuria at 2AM, while watching YouTube at full volume.
It works.But you’re not always sure it should.
The adjustment phase
At first, JavaScript feels messy.
Too flexible. Too forgiving. Too many ways to do the same thing.
But slowly, something changes.
You realize the language isn’t enforcing discipline on you, you’re expected to build it yourself.
That’s the shift.Go gives you structure upfront.
JavaScript forces you to learn structure through experience.
One is guided discipline.The other is learned discipline
Final thoughts
Growing up strict teaches you order.Campus life teaches you independence.
Go gives you rules.
JavaScript gives you freedom, and occasionally lets you suffer for bad decisions.
And maybe that’s the real lesson:
Structure is important, but so is learning how to create it for yourself when no one is watching.