Are you constantly buying Udemy Courses (on sale obviously )? Hopping from one tutorial to the next? And constantly doing research on which programming language is the best? If you said yes to one or more of these then you’re probably in Tutorial hell.
But what is Tutorial hell?
It’s when you’re constantly learning tutorials and you feel like you’re learning or making progress but are unable to code without the help of a tutorial and are unable to work on complex problems or projects on your own.
If you’re currently in tutorial hell, it’s okay, you’re not alone.
I stumbled into coding in 2018, I was trying to start a blog and learning WordPress, and the next thing you know I was going down the web development rabbit hole and learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
I eventually moved around and explored Data Science, product management, cloud computing, and DevOps. But I never actually stuck with any of them long enough to build proper projects or land a job.
Whenever things got too intense or hard and they always did, I would move on to the next shiny object in tech.
However, for the past month and more, I have not only stuck to a specific path and course, but I have been building projects too.
So what changed? I’ll be sharing that shortly.
Here are the 5 things that helped me get out of Tutorial hell
1. Pick a path and stick to it
There’s no best path or best language or best framework etc It all depends on what you want to use it for and how good you get at programming because once you know how to learn and how to solve problems with code, you can pick up other tools and languages more easily.
When you’re starting out, learn how to learn and if your goal is to get a job as quickly as possible, go for what’s in demand or popular and stick with it. You can learn all the other things on the job or as you become a better programmer.
2. Find a supportive community
I joined 100Devs recently and I was amazed at how supportive the community is. If I had this when I was starting ie (a teacher who I can relate to and understand, pep talks at the start of every class, and a large community willing to help and encourage you each step of the way) who knows where I would be by now.
It’s so important to learn along with others, gain support when you struggle because you will struggle, and have people that can help you look at your code and solve the problems you have while you’re learning.
You need someone that will keep you accountable and you can have daily or weekly check-ins with that person to see if you completed your goals for that week, but also find ways to better achieve your goals or improve your focus, etc.
Joining the #100daysofcode or #100DaysofWeb3 tags are also helpful to keep you accountable because people start to follow your journey and you can keep a streak of sharing your progress consistently.
3. Build Projects !!!!
Building projects is honestly the best way to learn because you are forced to apply the things you're learning and you see how all the things you've learned come together. But you also learn new things in the process.
Once you've learned the basics of a programming language, start working on projects because that's honestly how you learn
I saw a tweet from Danny Thompson that talks about why projects are important
4. Take Care of Yourself
Leon (the founder of 100Devs) always tells us how important it is to take care of ourselves, to rest, pace ourselves and not try to do too much too soon.
You don’t need to spend 10 hours a day coding and get burnt out after 2 weeks. It’s a marathon and not a sprint. Taking care of yourself will help you be consistent and stay long enough to land a role and grow as a dev.
5. Stop trying to be perfect
This was by far my biggest problem, I wanted my code to look pretty and to get each assignment right on the first try and would rather not try than write something bad or make mistakes.
In 100 Devs, we have a mantra “I’m a baddie and I write bad code” to encourage ourselves to just attempt the assignments, to put down the “bad code” with mistakes and all.
And if you take a break or life happens, it's okay! just start coding again and don't worry about being behind or being slow, etc.
We’re not competing with anyone, we’re only competing with the person we were yesterday and if we keep showing up and doing the work and not just passively watching tutorials, we will always win.
You can probably tell that joining 100Devs has taught me so much. It’s a completely free coding Bootcamp and is probably the best option if you want to land a developer job this year. Here’s the link if you would like to join %[leonnoel.com/100devs/] and let me know if you have any questions on it.
Thank you so much for reading!!
Let me know what you think about the article and what other topics you would like to see me write about!!