JavaScript Fundamentals I Never Skip, Even With Frameworks

It's tempting to jump straight into a framework and never look back at plain JavaScript, but a solid understanding of vanilla JS fundamentals has saved me repeatedly — especially when debugging framework-specific issues that actually stem from a misunderstanding of core JS behavior.

Things like closures, the event loop, `this` binding, and how promises resolve are concepts that show up constantly, whether I'm writing a Vue composable, a small standalone script (like the cart logic in one of my recent projects), or debugging why an async function isn't behaving as expected.

I also make it a habit to write small utility scripts in plain JavaScript before reaching for a library — for simple DOM manipulation, form validation, or basic interactivity, vanilla JS is often lighter and faster than pulling in an extra dependency.

Frameworks are fantastic productivity tools, but they're built on top of JavaScript, not a replacement for understanding it. That foundation is what lets me actually debug issues instead of guessing at framework "magic."