“Just” is a dirty word

My least favorite word in web development is “just.” I see it used in documentation, tutorials, blog posts, StackOverflow answers and more, and it sucks.

What’s so bad about “just?”

It implies that something should be easy. And often, for the person asking the question, reading the tutorial, and so on, it’s not.

So they feel like an idiot.

They feel like they’re not smart enough, or good enough to do this kind of work. They feel like something is really complicated and that they can’t learn it.

In reality, the documentation just sucks.

I make a very concious effort to never use “just” in my training, talks, and pocket guides. I don’t always succeed, though, so if you ever see me use that word, call me out!

And if you see the word “just” in documentation somewhere and feel like an idiot when you don’t get it, remember that you’re not dumb. The author just sucks at writing docs.