Master the first skill you should have been taught in school: testing.
No more hours spent fighting bugs, spaghetti code, or burnout.
A first-principled based approach to master the foundational skill that gives you the confidence to take on contracts, reduce bugs, and write high-quality code that gets better instead of worse over time.
IT'S TIME TO RAISE YOUR STANDARDS
Why Should I Care About Testing Mastery?
It probably feels like something is missing...
Picture this: you’ve just landed your first freelance contract job.
Or maybe, you’ve just become the sole developer at a small company.
You’re stoked that you’ve been able to land this gig, but for some reason, you feel kinda nervous.
Why? You’ve built stuff before.
You know what you’re doing.
Of course.
But this time it feels different. Why?
Because even though you know how to use Next.js…
Even if you know a backend framework…
Hell, even if you know how to use a lot of the Domain-Driven Design techniques I’m a huge fan of…
It’s different.
With great power comes great responsibility.
And you’ve got some responsibilities now.
The pressure is on, my friend.
If you've been able to get this far, you've probably had the experiences to recognize writing which works once is a LOT different from writing code that allows you to sleep soundly at night.
I've been there myself. It absolutely sucks leaving your machine wondering:
"Did I do this right"?
"Will this work?"
"Was there something I missed?"
So if it feels like something is missing, that’s because something is missing.
You need to learn the skill that "every single successful company uses".
And that skill is testing.
THE INSTRUCTOR
Who Is This Guy?
JUST SOMEONE OBSESSED WITH FIGURING OUT HOW TO BE A GREAT DEV
I’ve been obsessed with finding the answer to question of “how to write scalable, testable code” ever since 2017.
It was born out of frustration, actually.
I followed the traditional path.
I graduated with a 5 computer science bachelors degree and a diploma in networking engineering.
I worked in terrible codebases at consultancies & launched my first startup (which took longer & longer to add features to) — only to realize that there was little that 5 years of university taught me which could prepare me for the real world.
It was a free-for-all.
I realized formal education had completely failed me.
Eventually, I said enough is enough and decided to take matters into my own hands.
I chose to figure out what it really takes to get good at consistently solving problems and writing great code.
I didn't care how long it'd take me either.
I just had to know.
Hey, I’m Khalil
I turn developers into confident crafters developers who can go on to land jobs, clients, contracts, and start their own software companies (all without having to buy, read & digest hundreds of complex programming books).
Over the last 6-7 years as an educator and an ex-developer advocate at Apollo GraphQL, I’ve been following my curiosity — coding, blogging, studying many topics from software design, psychology, neuroscience, human-computer interaction, philosophy & reading every single one of the classic programming books from over the last 40 years — all while seeking advice from their original authors, on Twitter.
Over that time, here’s what I’ve been focused on:
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growing a Discord community of developers who want to master their craft and build inspiring careers
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helping new devs get up to speed on the world of software design, architecture & testing in solidbook.io
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coaching developers 1-on-1 in The Software Essentialist Mentorship Training
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and in 2023, we launched the initial early adopter version of The Software Essentialist based on the mentorship training
My philosophy is Value Creation. It's what I'm most passionate about.
My vision for essentialist.dev is to create the best place on the planet for developers to ramp up on what really matters — and do it fast.
I'm helping developers become Value Creators themselves, in everything they do, without having to spend as much time as I did.
And while I believe that Mastery is key, it’s not the goal.
It's merely the first step toward what you authentically want to create — in your career, for your family, for your life.
That’s what I’m all about, personally.
COMPLETE THE APPRENTICESHIP
How will testing help me?
The many benefits of testing mastery
One of the first things we teach in The Software Essentialist is that there are only 4 things that actually really matter.
They are The 4 Pillars: Testing, Architecture, Design & Strategy.
And the thing is... basically no one is teaching them, and very few developers consciously practice them.
Why?
Well, traditionally, they've been extremely difficult to learn and apply.
(Have you ever picked up a book on Design Patterns just to study? Not all that useful, right?)
We do things differently here.
We focus on how to master testing from first principles using the philosophy of Software Essentialism.
Because testing is the one skill that developers completing our program gain the ability to:
- do great work, consistently
- get recommended, and re-recommended for jobs by clients
- start their own companies
- focus the majority of their time on new features instead of bugs
- reduce bugs by up to 80%
- produce high quality code using tests to guide their designs
- embed tests within a Deployment Pipeline and dramatically improve the way they deliver software
- sleep soundly at night knowing they have a suite of tests keeping their code (or their clients' code) humming along peacefully
THE CURRICULUM
What Will I Learn?
You’ll learn this in ~2-4 weeks.
Part 1
The Metaphysics (The Mental Models & the 12 Essentials)
Imagine trying to hit a home run, but you're facing the opposite direction.
Thats kinda what it's like these days if you’re focused on learning the wrong things. Lets re-align to the first principles.
In this first part of the course, we clarify the foundational philosophy of Software Essentialism.
You'll gain a minimal, stripped down, sythensized picture of what matters & what doesn't.
This first part of the course sets us up to take massive action on what get you the most results.
This is where you'll:
- Learn the critical role mental models play in your skill level as a developer
- Understand the purpose of software & software development & how to become a Value-First developer
- Break down the 4 pillars, why it's so hard to master them independently & what we'll do instead
- Discover where you currently are in your developer journey & how we'll progress using the 5 Phases of Craftship
- Learn the 12 essential mental models that make up the 80-20 of DDD, TDD, BDD, architectural patterns, styles, design patterns, object oriented & functional programming, functional programming, deployment pipelines & more.
Part 2
The Five Phases of Craftship
The bulk of the course is The Five Phases of Craftship — distinct phases of lessons, labs, demos, exercises & assignments to move you from wherever you are now to the next phase and beyond.
THE CODE FIRST PHASE (published)
- In the Code-First phase, we’ll focus on turning you into a full-stack developer who understands the core fundamentals of abstraction, abstraction layers, MVC, and each part of the stack involved with shipping value into the world.
THE BEST PRACTICE-FIRST PHASE
- In the Best Practice-First Phase, we’ll focus on shifting away from the typical “best practices” to the real best practices.
- You’ll set up an incredibly strong foundation built on TDD, BDD, object-oriented design & understand how to not only write valuable tests using a testable architecture on any side of the stack, but how to:
- clarify what you build before you build it
- safely refactor existing features
- decouple from infrastructure using a Hexagonal Architecture
- set up a scalable project architecture
- fix your flaky E2E tests
- embed valuable tests in a deployment pipeline
- use a combination of valuable, customer-focused E2e, unit & integration tests for both frontend & backend
- and more
What’s included in the course?
Value-Packed Written & Video Lessons
You’re going to get the step-by-step path of content that shows you what you need to know, when you need to know it — in a mixture of video & written lessons.
Course Discord Community Membership
You'll get exclusive access to The Software Essentialist Discord Group w/ me, the other students on the same path as you, and The Software Essentialist Mentorship Alumni.
Code (Repos, Samples), Demos & Discussions
There’s going to be a lot of code to learn from. You’ll get access to all the code samples, access to demos & discussions going over fellow student submissions.
Hands on exercises & assignments
This is a hands-on course. To get the most out of it, I’ve set up multiple assignments and exercises at each stage for you to get real experience with.
MEET YOUR CLASSMATES
Why ~550+ Crafters Already Joined
A community of Value Creating developers.
READY TO GET STARTED?
Join Testing Mastery
$699
Master the foundational skill which leads to more confidence, opportunities, and progress.
Testing Mastery (Bachelors)
Access includes:
★ The Metaphysics
★ The Code-First Phase of Craftship
★ The Best Practice-First Phase of Craftship
★ Bonus: Discord Community Access
★ Bonus: solidbook.io
★ Bonus: Code Samples & Repos
$399.00 USD
What students are saying
Who This Course Is For
- Professional JavaScript developers
- Front-end developers
- Self-taught developers
- Go-getters
- Developers willing to do what it takes to get to the next level
Who This Course Is NOT For
- Developers not willing to master testing
- Developers who don't care about scalability
- Developers who would prefer to learn the basics using the latest tech
- Developers not willing to take instructions (and prefer to figure things out on your own with trial and error)
- Developers not willing to putting in the work
- Developers who expect things to be easy
- Developers who won't do the exercises or assignments
- Developers who passively watch video courses & YouTube videos but don't balance it with equal amounts of action
- You're not willing to join an Early Adopter program
Got questions?
Make sure you're making the right decision
Here are some answers to common questions.
What's the format? Self-Guided, Cohort, Community?
What makes this different from other courses?
Will I be writing code?
How long do I get access?
What is The Software Essentialist Mentorship?
Are there pre-requisites to the course?
Will this help me with data structures & algorithms?
Is there a money back guarantee?
Got another question?
Shoot us an email @ [email protected].
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