Krasimir Tsonev is one of the leaders in the IT world I admire. Not only because of his enthusiasm to help every time I ask but his ability to share knowledge and encourage people to grow.
You don't have to trust me - trust the community. He has a Stackoverflow reputation of 13,236.
Krasimir is also a long-time software professional. He wrote five books on Javascript, Node.js, and Front-end. You should have seen him at one of your favorite web development conferences.
I asked him a few questions so that he could meet all the readers at HackerNoon, and the readers could learn a thing or two from his wisdom as well.
I saw you posted recently on your LinkedIn Page that you recommend the usage of CoPilot. The community raises many concerns with how it works, mainly about privacy, copyright infringements, security, and the general maturity of the suggestions. What's your take on this from your point of view?
The truth is that I don't have an answer to that. In general, I agree with the concerns, and I see the problem. At the same time, the suggestions I'm getting from CoPilot are more like smart auto-completion.
The nature of my job (front-end development) is that most things I do are already done a million times. So, I don't see it as "stealing" someone's code.
For example, we have all been doing this for ages by copying/pasting code from StackOverflow. The situation is different in other areas, but it's a tool that helps me be more productive.
You wrote a good amount of javascript books. What do you think it's the biggest challenge now in the JS world you cover in them?
The biggest challenge now (and in the upcoming years) will be to gain a deep understanding of the language and the Web platform in particular. That's because the JS world is overtaken by frameworks that abstract so much.
The context of most people today is limited to using one or another but not understanding the underlying language and platform. This is a problem because it makes people less flexible and unable to adapt to new technologies. I'm not saying that frameworks are bad.
We should be careful not to lose the big picture and the fundamentals.
Would you share the 50 Shades Amazon story with us?
That's a funny one. I picked "50 Shades of JavaScript" as the title of my last book. I worked hard on delivering the book and even successfully published it on Amazon.
After some time, though, some people put a complaint on me that I'm violating copyright. It turned out that I can't use that title because of the book/movie "50 Shades of Grey".
Amazon even blocked my account until we resolved the "problem." I changed the title to "50 tips on JavaScript". Republish the book with the new title, and the copyright holder withdraws the complaint.
I know you are active in helping the future generation start programming. What is the first advice you would give to the many people reading this who want to start doing something useful?
First, don't skip the fundamentals.
Whatever area you pick, focus on the fundamentals in the beginning. After that, start doing actual projects. It's essential to build something real. I know people who spend months watching clips online, reading books, or attending courses. Nothing wrong with that, but they need to start using what they learn.
I know you are coming from Bulgaria. How is the JS programming community there? Are they any exciting news that you would like to share with us?
Bulgaria's JS community is as big as everywhere else. That's because JavaScript (for good or bad) is taking the world. There are many meetups and conferences happening, mainly in the big cities. Unfortunately, I can't quote some of them, but if someone is interested will find the info online.
What is the skill that AI lacks the most? Is there any aspect of your work that AI can't help with?
I think AI lacks the ability to think creatively. It can't come up with new ideas. It can only learn from existing data.
That's why I believe AI will never replace humans. It will only help us do our job better. Also, most IT jobs require soft skills like communication, teamwork, etc. AI can't do that effectively. At least not yet.