Are You Making This Mistake? (Learning Programming)

Do you feel like you've been watching tutorials endlessly and not making headway on your goal of becoming a developer? You may be stuck in what I call "Tutorial Purgatory". In this video I try and cover what tutorial purgatory is, whether or not you are doing it and how to get out of it.

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[AndySterkowitz]

Do you feel like you are in tutorial purgatory at the moment? And if so did my suggestions of how to get out of purgatory make sense?

[vargonian]

To get personal, for me it's about fear or laziness, which are often related. I want to feel like I'm doing something productive but I'm too afraid to dive into a project where I'm going to need to have the burden of making decisions / sacrifices and sweating through hard problems. If I'm watching a tutorial, I give up responsibility to an external force, and can passively watch while still feeling like I'm being productive.

I like the advice John Sonmez gives that when you're learning a new subject, you should be applying it to a project goal. For example, "I'm going to learn React and use it to make a website for my portfolio". If I ever learn something without exercising it, I inevitably forget most of it.

[HashimWarren]

Let your project guide your learning. If you put together a web project and keep hitting problems with your CSS, then let that be the next subject you dive into. Don't start learning GraphQL because it's a hotter subject, if it doesn't apply to your project.

[sinancalsr]

I'm in purgatory about watching tutorials about tutorial purgatory. Do you have any tutorial on that ?

[paujoan]

I was about to quit, tired of LEARNING tutorials forever, I started a project... then I started learning A LOT, just by googling ''HOW I DO THIS, HOW I DO THAT?" and it boosted my motivation to the stat it was at the beginning! :)

[noname]

I self taught myself coding. I began with SQL, then moved to Python. But when I got to Python, I did not learn everything, I learned what was meaningful to me. I learned Python for security so that I could increase in my system administrator role and responsibilities. I learned how to perform data analysis with Python and how to do all things security related, with a special emphasis towards ethical hacking and penetration testing. Am I an expert in Python? No, but I can perform security roles, penetration testing tasks, and certain information analysis with Python. That is more than enough for my line of IT work.

[wholebrain]

Well... YouTube certainly became very smart to put this video in my recommendations. Thanks !

[Neonviking]

This video found its way into my 4 month tutorial purgatory and acted as a break statement. Pretty much "just do something" is what I needed to hear, gratitude!

[dc]

Again, this is a video blog I cannot stop thinking about because I have and sometimes AM living in this purgatory...trying to chase the "right" tutorial down that will be the "be-all, end-all" answer to all of my questions and unlock my super success as a programmer...blah!

There is only one true way to achieve success as a programmer....to sit down and write Period!

But with that said, to follow Andy's direction, here is some advice towards making a Game Plan if you are not sure where to start, especially for those who subscribe to the self-taught or through video tutorials like through Udemy or Pluralsight, etc:

1. Whatever program language you choose, if you elect to take a video training course through Udemy, Pluralsight, etc, take one that has PROJECTS incorporated in the training, where you follow along and write actual code to make projects during the training. You can apply the same thing if you are learning from a self-taught programming book.

2. Once you start this course/book, complete EVERY project it has. And do NOT start another class/book until you HAVE completed every code that is part of the class/book. When you have, THEN you can move on to the next one.

3. Keep a journal as you learn; write down the good stuff and especially the bad stuff but the good stuff (where you learned a concept, etc) is VERY important...later, as you reflect on it, you can see where you highlight your achievements and not just on the failures. Read the previous weeks journal entries before you start the new week's journal entries and make sure you journal a minimum of three days a week.

4. If you are taking a video course or reading a book, set a deadline as to when you must finish it by, only allowing an extra two weeks-to one month after the deadline should you not meet it and no more. This way it won't take you forever to get through it. FOCUS on your success...

Hope this helps.

[TropicalTaquito]

Thank you so much for this. I was stuck in this tutorial “hell” as I call it and I finally broke out of it. I noticed that no matter how many courses I took, it would never stick. I finally got fed up with watching tutorials that would get really boring. Even instructors that I really enjoyed, I would start to feel like I wasn’t getting the information to stick. Plus after a tutorial and you start on your own project, the route is completely different than the tutorial you took. You may need more packages or more things from a certain package. I’ve been stuck in this rut for a year and a half and I think it has really held me back. Yeah I get spots of new information I’ve been able to hold on to but for the most part most of the tutorial I couldn’t remember in depth for the life of me. Thank you a lot for this video. It’s really important for aspiring developer like myself to not get trapped in only feeling comfortable in tutorials. It’s can be scary looking at a blank text editor thinking about what to build, but once you get into the rhythm and have a decent idea on how to search and ask questions, the process will be a little easier. It won’t be easy, just easier. Again, great video!

[ALEXEIS]

I am a "tutorial collector", in the sense that I keep downloading tutorials even when I've not finished watching & practicing the previous ones. In the end, I end up with shit-load of tutorials I may never watch on my hard drive.
I've tuts that are over 4 years old on my hard-drives that I haven't seen.
Now, I have lots of projects that are mostly less than 40% complete; built with different languages & frameworks because I keep chasing shadows & "prostituting" around with different programming languages.
Pathetic.

I think the best way to go is to join a team in building a project. This way, a goal will be set, & there will be no room for lackadaisical feelings.

Thanks for the vid.

[gangstadogEK]

Wow! Great video Andy. I must admit I have been stuck in tutorial purgatory. This is a topic that is not talked about enough for beginner developers. Best advice for me is if you eventually do plan on making this a career you are going to have to just jump in. Same thing with learning anything. Snowboarding, basketball, dancing under water basket weaving etc...You can read books and watch videos in this stuff but until you actually dive in and get your hands dirty you won’t progress. Once you make your first website/application the momentum will be created and you can just keep going from there 🤙🏽

[cyberpilot]

this tutorial on tutorial purgatory really helped.

[ogundeindeadedamola]

In my own opinion, set a goal, know the basics of your chosen language and start building a project! In developing the project, you will still need to learn and keep learning. The idea for me is that you never stop watching tutorials but you watch tutorials for specific ideas! And, the only to watch tutorials for the specific idea is to have projects you are working on. Like the story of your starting out when you developed an app in javascript(cant remember the app now as i type the response but i know i have that video) to show to clients...

[ronbrand]

Total beginner here. I’m working through “Head First HTML and CSS” right now. It is a very straight forward book and is easy to follow. Out of all the tutorials and free ebooks, this book has made learning fun.

[davy]

Very well said, Andy. I used to be in that situation two years ago. And it's not just a purgatory it's almost like eternal damnation. The self-doubt it's very depressing. I sorted things out, I created a plan, I started with Wordpress, everything I do will be in WordPress. Watched only tutorials about Wordpress, and I didn't stop until I'm the WordPress guru in the family and after building enough for my WordPress sites for my portfolio I checked out Node.js and followed the same rule. No other lesson until I can produce a decent app from Node.js. In Node, I used only one stack, Node Express and MongoDb while playing with APIs. No, I don't know Angular yet, I'm still in Vue.JS and next is React. Accept it, you can't learn everything in one single swoop.

[aysanmazloumi]

I have watched so many videos for learning how to code, algorithms, data structures... But I can say this one is totally the most useful one. Thanks Andy. It's definitely an eye-opening video for young sw developers.

[serioustimbersstudychannel]

Thank you for this. I am just getting out of the "purgatory". I've gone from C, to python, to PHP and now to Javascript. I wasn't totally aimless but I've finally grown aware of the importance of spending MORE time planning out WHERE I want to be in my CS career and WHEN!

[jixi]

From your explanation, I'm definitely not in a state of tutorial purgatory a.t.m. So nice of you to share your insight to help us in the process to reach our goal. Much appreciated, thank you!

[xavandres]

I think this applies to everyone who is self taught in something. Really helped me a lot (I'm not a software developer).