How I Came Out of Tutorial Hell | Lesson to Every Beginner Developer
Solution, my story and how tutorial hell kills a programmer.
Tutorials are so captivating that we often lose track of time and end up watching them for hours. But have you ever found yourself in a situation where you keep watching tutorials and courses, but never actually build anything on your own? That, my friend, is what I like to call “tutorial hell”.
In my opinion, tutorial hell is when you get stuck in a cycle of endlessly consuming tutorials and courses, without actually putting any of that knowledge into practice. It’s like reading a cookbook but never actually cooking anything, or watching a sports game but never actually playing.
For eg. You could be spending countless hours watching tutorials on how to use a particular JavaScript framework, but never actually attempting to build a project with it.
Why I said Programmer Inside you Dies?
Consider this scenario:
- You come across an interesting tutorial, such as building a blog with React or creating a landing page with HTML and CSS.
- You click on it and before you know it, hours have passed by as you watch it.
- After finishing the tutorial, you realize that you haven’t made any progress on your own.
The programmer inside of you dies when you realize that you’ve spent countless hours without achieving anything substantial. The regret of wasting your time can make you feel like programming is too difficult, leading you to think that you can’t do it.
This is especially true for beginners who may give up easily if they encounter this situation.
Advice to follow in such situation —
What to do when you find yourself stuck in the tutorial hell?
The key is to have self-control and not give up. Instead of dwelling on the wasted time, start afresh with a positive mindset.
Admit that you made a mistake and forgive yourself.
Say to yourself, “It’s okay, I can’t change the past, but I can control my present actions. Let me start with a fresh plan, starting from the basics.”
I’m not saying that you should stop watching tutorials altogether. They can be helpful at times and can serve as a source of inspiration to keep going. But it’s important to have a balance between watching and doing.
Make sure that you are applying the concepts learned in tutorials by working on your own projects. That’s when you will truly develop your skills as a programmer.
They inspire to keep going and reach that level…
Remember, it’s never too late to start over and keep learning.
My story
I was a beginner in web development, around 1.5 -2 yrs back, I watched several tutorial of making landing pages, portfolio websites, restaurant websites, etc.
I spent more time consuming tutorials than actually working on them and making something for real.
Long after, around 1yr back, when I started reading books, I read productivity books a lot, Deep Work, Atomic Habits, Make Time. After which I realized that I was only wasting time!! They helped me get on more efficient track.
Honestly, you just need a self-realization and negative impacts of a habit to quit it. And I did that, which has helped me to become aware.
However, I still dive into tutorial hell but this time intentionally so that I can search for ideas, find excitement ( “if he can make it I can also make it” kind of) and point out mistakes. (when I give myself little break , I comment on their posts and suggest better way!!)
Long story short
As a beginner I have also been addcited to this stuff for a few months, but I realized that “watching tutorials and not creating stuff is just waste of time.” SIMPLE. I accepted my position and moved from there to next step to actually trying and making things.
And making actual projects was harder. Which also killed my assumption of (while watching tutorial) “ohh, that’s easy I can make that”.
Solution
One belief of excellent and quick learner is “I know nothing”. If you can adopt it, you will be unstoppable.
I don’t think there is any specific trick or framework to come out of it. It’s just all about your discipline and self-realization (like, are you actually learning or not!!).
Discipline will help you bring back to actual work and self-realization will keep you grounded of where you are, so that you can move to next step from there.
Maybe you can check these;
- Don’t click on a tutorial unless you really think you need to watch it.
- If watching create along with video.
Finally
Watch tutorials intentionally.
If watching to find inspiration or motivation to make, set a timer for 15 minutes.
Watching tutorials isn’t bad, but I feel is just soo time consuming and kind of addition!! So I suggest you to keep an eye on yourself.
Have a great day my friend.👍🤝
I have learned several productivity rules from book I read, being a programmer myself I applied those lessons in my working sessions, they have really boosted my work efficiency to next level.
I will share them, imagine a programmers guide to productivity for a programmer. Step by step guides. Wouldn’t that be time saving and valuable? Of course it will be.
So, follow me and join mail list.
I am working on making our discord community as well (frontend/web developers), If you join mail list, you’ll get early invite.
Take care✨💫
(btw, links for books above are affiliated by amazon, i’ll get little commission, another way to supprot me❤)
