ES6 (ECMAScript 2015) was a turning point for JavaScript. It introduced syntax that made code more expressive, concise, and easier to reason about.

Arrow functions

// Before
function add(a, b) { return a + b; }

// After
const add = (a, b) => a + b;

Destructuring

const { name, age } = user;
const [first, ...rest] = items;

Template literals

const greeting = `Hello, ${name}! You have ${count} messages.`;

Async / Await

Built on top of Promises, async/await makes asynchronous code read like synchronous code.

async function fetchUser(id) {
    const res = await fetch(`/api/users/${id}`);
    return res.json();
}

These features are now table stakes for any JavaScript developer. If you haven't adopted them yet, start today.