How To Escape Tutorial Hell As A Developer
A situation many developers find themselves in at some stage, myself included.
A familiar state for many developers, from beginners to advanced, is the continuous cycle of watching tutorial videos on repeat, often known as tutorial hell.
We finish one tutorial with a sense of learning and knowledge, only to chain another one after the first. The chaining of videos continues as we feel like we are progressing towards our goals. However, in reality, most of the knowledge that we gain from these videos is forgotten as we do not apply what we have learned, instead focussing on which video tutorial to follow next.
It is easy to fall down this rabbit hole, having done so frequently in the past, especially when I started learning to be an app developer.
But why do we get stuck in tutorial hell exactly? And how can we escape this position to advance our progression as a developer?
That is what we will look into now.
Why Do We Get Stuck In Tutorial Hell?
There are many reasons people get stuck in this position and often find it difficult to escape.
First of all, tutorials are risk-free. There is no one to tell us that we do not understand what has been explained, or no errors occurring in the codebase when trying to replicate the outcome of the lesson. With the lack of pressure of making mistakes, we get comfortable learning this way.
Secondly, it gives us a sense of progression, even if that may not be the case. Watching five tutorials on a certain concept or framework does not mean that you understand and can apply that knowledge. Although, because we have completed the tutorials, we feel like we have learnt the necessary areas.
Lastly, the infamous “imposter syndrome”. In some cases, it may be that we have the knowledge and capabilities, but are held back by our fears of failing or feeling like we do not know enough. Therefore we must continue to complete tutorials in order to acquire the abilities that are probably already possessed.
How Do We Progress Past This Cycle Of Tutorials?
The solution to freeing ourselves from the continuous tutorials and progressing our abilities is simpler than you may think.
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” -John Assaraf
Start And Finish A New Project
Applying your current knowledge and testing your abilities is one of the best solutions to progress as a developer. Take a concept you are unsure of and watch one or two videos to refresh your memory on the topic. From here, build a brand new project that implements this concept without relying on any other tutorials for guidance. Should you get stuck throughout the project, refer to the specific language or framework documentation, as well as your notes and try to figure it out. Fully complete this project and make sure it works correctly. Completing this project on your own will give you a greater sense of accomplishment whilst also further increasing your understanding of the concept you were applying.
Use Different Resources For Learning
Change up how you learn by using different resources such as books or listening to podcasts. Doing so will force you to be more engaged with the content delivered, reducing the chance of switching off like you can with video tutorials. You may also find that you take in the information better by using a different method.
Contribute To Open-Source
Instead of creating a brand new project, you take an existing one, take a small chunk to fix, or add a new feature. Now, this may seem daunting at first, especially for new developers. However, once you take the leap into open-source contribution, your skills as a developer will drastically improve. Not only will you be looking at other developers code, getting an understanding of it, seeing how certain concepts are implemented, but you will also find a large community of active developers. These developers are often happy to help with questions or concerns you may have. It also gives you firsthand experience of using Git, GitHub, pull requests and branches. These are all areas that are used extensively in company projects. To top it all off, contributing to open-source projects can look excellent on your CV or resume when applying for developer positions.
Recap
- Don’t rely on watching video tutorials endlessly.
- Build projects that implement the areas you have learnt.
- Attempt projects without relying on tutorials to show you what to do.
- Try different educational resources.
- Challenge yourself by contributing to open-sourced projects.
Video tutorials are not evil. In fact, for many, they are a necessity, particularly for self-taught developers. The problem comes from relying solely on watching them. We assume that by watching the video, we will immediately understand everything from that video. The information delivered from these tutorials needs to be applied and tested to understand the concepts taught by them.
For more advice on becoming a self-taught developer, have a read of this article by clicking here. I also detail the mistakes that I made as a self-taught developer in this post here.
I hope this information helps you should you find yourself stuck in a similar situation.
