Growth Levels

1. The Cognitive Level (Dreyfus Model)

This theoretical framework describes how a person transitions from following rigid rules to using intuitive judgment.

• Novice: You follow “recipes.” You need step-by-step tutorials (e.g., “How to build a login with React”) and struggle when the tutorial doesn’t match your exact version.

• Advanced Beginner: You begin to recognize patterns. You can troubleshoot basic errors because you’ve seen them before, but you still view every task as equally important and struggle to prioritize.

   

• Competent: You can plan a whole project. You stop thinking about “how to write a loop” and start thinking about “how to organize this data.” You feel a sense of responsibility for the outcome, not just the code.

• Proficient: You develop “technical intuition.” You can look at a massive codebase and instinctively sense where a bug might be hiding before you even run the debugger.

• Expert: You no longer rely on rules. You create the “best practices” that others follow. Your decisions are based on a deep, tacit understanding of how the web works at a fundamental level.2. The Scope of Impact (The “Radius” Theory)

  Growth can also be measured by the “size” of the problems you solve.

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  2. The Technical Dimensions

  As you grow, your focus shifts across these three theoretical axes:

  • Breadth: Moving from a specialist (e.g., CSS expert) to a “T-Shaped” developer (knows many things, deep in one) or “Full Stack.”

  • Depth: Understanding the “Magic.” Moving from “I use this library” to “I understand how this library manipulates the DOM or manages memory.”

  • Speed: Not just typing faster, but reaching the correct solution with fewer “dead ends” and less technical debt.