Published on 2024-01-03 09:30 by Gabriel Palhares

Woovi Bets on JavaScript, Should You?

Intro

This article was written right after the lecture Why Woovi Bet on JavaScript?, and I want to provide you with some additional perspective on that.

As most of you may know, Woovi is a growing Startup that enables shoppers to pay as they like. Many people associate Woovi as “Sibelius’s company”, and there’s no reason to judge them because Sibelius is one of the most relevant and well-known individuals in Brazil’s tech scenario, especially on social networks. This also means that many people are looking at his work and what he’s doing. Personally, for me, this is a great way to influence people.

So, let’s go straight to the point: Woovi and Sibelius bet on JavaScript. Should you? The obvious answer is: only you can know that.

Dawn, so why did you decide to write this article? Sibelius has already covered all the tech details about JavaScript and their decision. Well, as I mentioned in the beginning, there are some additional points to make.

Thoughts

• It’s not an easy and personal choice when a company’s business is at stake

Every senior developer knows that this kind of decision has a lot of details behind it, and it’s not always an easy choice. It’s also not always something that is solely in their hands. In most cases, it’s the company’s decision that prevails in the end. However, as a CTO, Tech Lead, or Senior Developer, you can argue and help them decide which technology will be better for the company’s goals, based on your experience and the team’s skills.

• In 95% of cases, it’s initially better to focus on the product and company rather than the tech stack

One significant mistake often made by junior developers (and sometimes by many seniors) is that, instead of focusing on understanding the company and its product, some developers end up getting stuck in discussions about why a specific programming language is used. This distraction is less relevant when you initially join a company compared to the importance of grasping the nuances of the company and its products. Additionally, it’s crucial to remember that changing your personal career stack is much easier than changing a company’s stack.

• Changing the stack in a mid-to-large-sized product or company is not easy

For a company that has many years in the market or perhaps a particular growth product, it’s challenging to change the stack without breaking it. We see many companies in the market changing their stack and working on legacy code. This is a typical bottleneck caused because, in the early stages, they weren’t able to decide which stack would be best for the company or because it wasn’t deemed important at that time. Sometimes, the only goal was to make the product work and sell it, although they knew many problems would arise in the future. That’s fair, but at some point, it decreases the evolution of the company because everyone will be fixing technical debt and working on legacy code.

Why Javascript

This is why JavaScript prevails a lot, as @jessilyneh always says: “In the end, everything is JavaScript.” And it’s true; with JavaScript, we can do anything. You don’t need different programming languages for each product or code aspect when you can have one that performs well in almost every scenario. If you encounter a specific problem, you can use other programming languages that perform best. However, choosing JavaScript as your main is choosing intelligence, simplicity, and scalability.

Conclusion

It is important to have an understanding of all these aspects when it comes to a company’s tech stack. Regardless of your level as a developer and the environment in which you are working, it is crucial to focus on improving the quality of the ecosystem as a whole, no matter which technology your company relies on. It is also admirable to see companies like Woovi that, since the early stages, already have this vision and know how to balance the importance of growing quickly and staying ahead of competitors while maintaining a comprehensive technological plan. This ensures that the environment is resilient to future failures and easy to maintain, so that the ultimate goal of serving the customer is always being fulfilled.

Cover photo by Shashank Brahmavar, taken with an X-S10.