Back to basics (of Javascript?)

I've seen a lot written recently about returning to the "basics" of javascript (some of these do make good points), and some rebuttals to this notion, and some that take my PoV.  The "return to basics" camp appear to me to be relative newcomers to the software industry (by relative I have 25 years doing professional development, and another 10 or so before that of hacking things on my own).  I think these people didn't have to come up through the age of learning assembly, learning c/c++, and then, thank god, having the higher level languages become available.   I've seen some say that javascript is the assembly language of the web, and if that's true, why the hell would we want to write in it if there is a higher level language (typescript, web assembly can be written in almost any language at this point) available.  You don't want to go back and write programs in assembly (alright, maybe some do, but they are a special breed) when you have c#, python, java, etc available, right?  That's like saying "Ok, I have a hammer, let me go build a skyscraper with it."  You're going to need a few more tools in order to do that, and if you don't buy them, you're going to have to make something someone else has already made.  Yes I know a lot of people will complain "but tool XYZ doesn't do exactly the thing I need", well, use the tool for what you can, and put pieces together to make something, that's what engineers and architects do.  They don't stand around complaining "Oh, this circular saw has a 12" blade, I have to have one with a 12.5" blade.  You make it work.

I particularly love this quote

"Software should be developed using least amount of complexity, dependencies, effort and using fundamental tools that have been and will be here for the next 20 years."

Who in the hell thinks their software is still going to be running in its current form in 20 years?  If by some miracle it is, then it's the problem of the people running it to make sure the same tools and assumed environment are available to run it.  You don't see people expecting software from windows XP to continue to run on Windows 10 (well, maybe some people do, but hey it takes all kinds in this world).  The underlying hardware and software have just changed to much for that to be feasible.  Yes, you can run a VM that will probably get you 90+% of the way there, but some programs were written to directly access hardware and that hardware just isn't around any more, or make assumptions about memory allocation, there are all kinds ways the old programs just won't work.

Another one I like:

You take a risk whenever you bring in 3rd party code. This risk is reduced with tried and tested libraries/frameworks, but never truly eliminated. If you can get away with writing code yourself or with your team, you can reduce that risk and maintain a codebase that you know in and out.

What is the risk that we're taking?  That the code will disappear?  Unlikely for many reasons.  The risk that the code won't do exactly what we want?  Use it for what you can, or fork it and make it do what you want.  I would propose the bigger risk is creating something on your own where you don't have the time to think through all the ramifications, whereas you could be helping a group (hopefully) of people who are already working on the problem, adding your knowledge to theirs.  That's what OSS is all about really.

I'm not saying don't learn the basics and the underlying technology and the context in which these were built, learning this will absolutely make you a better programmer/developer in general, but learning something doesn't mean you are going to or should use it in your day to day activities.  I took 4 years of Latin in high school with no pretense of actually speaking it, but it is extremely useful as a lot of languages derived from it, and I can very often get a basic understanding of a word based on its derivation from Latin.  So please, learn all you can about computer science and the history that brought it to its current form, but please don't re-invent the wheel whenever you have to travel somewhere.

I know people don't like change in general, but if you're any kind of developer/programmer, you better thrive on it, and love it, because the rate of change is just going to keep on increasing.  No, you're not going to be able to know everything, pick some areas that you like, and learn them, and keep learning them.  You will get paid for knowing them, if that's your goal.  If you don't like change, go learn Assembly or FORTRAN or COBOL.  I'm sure some bank will want to know you.

Sorry for the rambling, I meant to focus on Javascript, but branched off into general programmer stuff pretty quickly.