In this article I will tell you how to avoid tutorial hell when you are a software developer
Why you should avoid tutorial hell at all costs
I am a software developer with about 10 years of experience. And I have been stuck in tutorial hell for a longgg time. Something like 3 years.
It caused me to almost give up programming. At the end, I was finally to get out of tutorial hell, and that’s when I found my first 6 figure job. But I almost didn’t make it.
If I had known what is tutorial hell, it would saved me so much time. That’s the wrong way to learn programming, so you gotta to avoid this at all cost.
My Tutorial hell story
So what is this tutorial hell? Here is my tutorial hell story.
When I got started in programming:
- I was curious
- I wanted to learn everything
- I wanted to become very good at programming so that I could find a job
So I started to watch tutorials, mostly on Youtube. And I loved it so much. You finish a tutorial, you have this feeling that you learned something.
So I wanted to do it again. Let’s watch another tutorial. Let’s learn more. It makes sense, right?
So everyday, I started to spend several hours binging on tutorials. My roommates were like “Hey dude, are you ok? You are like Neo in the Matrix with the crazy VR learning machine”
And I thought, “Hey, don’t you think that’s too many tutorials for today? Isn’t like binging on Netflix?”. But I then I told myself, “Well, yes, kind of like Netflix, but not exactly, because at least I am learning something”.
Really? Well, kind of.
Tutorial hell Problem 1: Easy to go down a Rabbit hole
One of the biggest problem of tutorial hell is that it’s a rabbit hole. There is always something else to learn:
- Another framework
- Another programming language
- Another cool project
It’s really infinite, and as the goes by it gets worst and worst, as more and more tech is created.
Where is the beginning, where is the end? You can get stuck forever.
Tutorial hell problem 2: It’s too passive
Another big issue is that following tutorials is too passive.
Especially video tutorials. You just watch the instructor do the coding. Just sit and relax, enjoy the show. You don’t have to do anything.
So you can try to type the code yourself, and run it. But most people don’t do this.
And even if you do this, you are still just following the instructions of someone, but you are not building yourself.
And that’s why a lot of people who are in tutorial hell have a lot of knowledge, but they cannot build anything themselves. They always need a tutorial. They need someone to show them how to do it. And this is so frustrating.
Tutorial hell problem 3: Tutorials are too easy
Another issue with tutorials is that they are too easy.
Most tutorials are beginner-level. Some are intermediate, but that’s rare. And almost none of them are expert.
So you stay stuck at a beginner-level, you never get better. And you also don’t learn how to build your projects.
Tutorial hell problem 4: It’s outdated
It’s very easy to learn something outdated with tutorials.
You spend 1 hour watching a tutorial. But at the end you realize the code doesn’t run on your computer. And you have just wasted your time.
How to avoid tutorial hell?
The first step is to set a goal:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- Are you trying to learn web development?
- Are you trying to learn Blockchain development? AI?
- And be very specific. For example in Blockchain, there are a lot of subniches. Even if you are not sure 100%, just pick a niche, and stick to i
- Then make a list of topics you need to learn to be competent in this niche
- And that’s it. From there, it will be much easier to control the scope
The next thing is to set a time limit. For example, you give yourself 10h per week to watch tutorials. You are in control. Not Youtube. If there are too many tutorials to watch, you just don’t watch them. You have already decided to maximum consumption, and tutorials have to fit your limit. It’s not you who has to adapt to how much content there is.
Next, don’t learn several ways of doing the same things. For example, let’s say you know React. There is no need to learn Angular. They do the same things. These are frontend framework to build dynamic frontend. You don’t gain anything. Just pick the most popular framework in a certain category, and you already cover the biggest part of the job market.
Next, accept that you can’t learn everything. There are entire area of software development that you will have to take for granted. We are already walking on the shoulders of giants. For example, how does an operating system work? Do you need to know this? The basics of it, but not in details. There are a lot of black boxes that we have to accept as such without diving into the rabbit hole. We have to stay at the interface, at the API level, and just be happy that it works.
And the last thing to fight tutorial hell is to remember that you learn best when YOU are active and YOU are trying to find the solution yourself, without listening passively to somebodyY. You need to go through this cycle where you
- First you start a new project, and you are very excited being excited, trying to build something
- Then you are stuck, you struggle, you are trying to find a solution struggling, feeling frustrated
- And finally you find the solution and you have a haha moment
And then you start again. This is when you learn the best.
Conclusion
Because doing coding challenges is the best way to learn I have built an entire learning platform for this.
This is called the 30 day academy. For each coding course, we have 30 coding challenges and solutions. Right now we are focused on Blockchain but later we will expand to other topics in programming.
If you use this link you will get a special discount.
Alright, that’s it for today, bye!
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