Ask HN: How would you learn web development in 2014?

lynda.com

The first thing you'll have to realize is that web development is learning multiple technologies.

HTML / CSS / a programming language / a framework to interface to the web / some basic system launching / databases / Javascript

Luckily you don't need to know 100% of them all just to get started.

I'd eliminate the first step -- deploying your code and build projects that run on heroku or appfog.com. The former allows small projects for free at the cost of some design decisions.

The second thing I'd eliminate is to start by learning Javascript. You necessarily don't have to use Node, but I'm assuming you have no programming background -- learning how basic programming works is important. I define programming as clear, step by step thinking expressed in any syntax. Programming is learning what to communicate to the computer, not just how to do it (the language). Coursera and others have javascript introductions.

From this point, I'd probably look at something like Parse.com as a backend for your web app -- this is an online database that you can access via Javascript.

Why am I recommending this route? You need the dopamine hits to keep going. Once you're building things, trust me, you'll find the language and framework you love and can "think in", be it ruby, python, javascript or anything else.

Get building, anything, and finish and ship it. Don't worry, it'll be ugly. Anything anyone writes today will be ugly in 5 years no matter their programming level. Your job is to build build build. Feel free to get in touch if you like, all the best :)