What is learning hell and how does it compare to tutorial hell?
Overview
Every beginner has at some point fallen into the never-ending pit of tutorial hell, and this doesn’t only apply to new developers; it is a universal consequence of learning a new skill. In this article, we are going to discuss what “learning hell” is and the similarities it has to “tutorial hell” when it comes to newbie developers.
As a novice developer, it makes sense to want to learn and to keep learning until, ideally, you have mastered the language or the skill you want to be exceptionally excellent at, but as individuals, we sometimes overlook the fact that learning involves doing a lot of things. The adage “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, engage me and I learn” has been shown to be true.
Only the teaching and telling are covered in tutorials; you are responsible for figuring out how to engage in the learning process. Here’s when the concept of learning hell comes into play. As we explore this subject further, we will discover more about learning hell, but let’s first take a closer look at tutorial hell.
What is Tutorial hell?
Tutorial hell is the state where a developer is constantly trapped, going from one tutorial to the next, and feeling like they haven’t learned enough and are not making any progress. This causes the fear of failure or the fear of not being able to do something by yourself; every time you think of writing your own code, you think, “Where do I even begin?” Let me watch how to start a project,” and the circle continues; it’s as if you’re always on baby wheels. After a while, you will become really good at coding along with a tutorial, but if you turn off the video, you are still at “Hello World.”
It’s good to watch tutorials, but it is also very addictive and dangerous. You never learn until you stop watching tutorials and start doing. It is very much possible to get out of tutorial hell, and even if you feel like it’s taking you a while, you will eventually gain enough confidence and learn to do things on your own.
Admittedly, tutorials are a great way to introduce yourself to a new concept, and I entirely support them, but only as long as they’re just an introduction to something and not a crutch to get through everything.
What is Learning hell?
Learning hell is when you are addicted to learning, but not in a good and productive way. What do I mean? Well, there’s learning, where you are constantly making yourself better and growing your skillset and intellect. But learning hell is when you want to learn everything at the same time, but instead of actually learning, you become dillusional and convince yourself that you are getting better and better while you are just replacing every bit of knowledge you attain with new information you will not retain.
You are basically biting every apple on the tree, and in the long run, you will learn absolutely nothing, and then you will be discouraged because you will constantly have to go back and learn things you should know at this point in your career.
Now, don’t think it’s wrong to learn new skills constantly; it’s actually great to improve and add more tools to your arsenal, but there is a better way that, in my opinion, can help you improve and learn at the same time without sacrificing one or the other.
Later in the article I will share the best ways ways I think you can avoid falling into the learning hell, and become a better developer.
How do developers fall into the learning hell?
Learning hell for most developers starts when they have just finished a tutorial and managed to copy and paste all the code from the tutorial straight from their own memory, convincing themselves that now they know how to develop the projects from the tutorial, which is a perpetual lie. They instantly feel like they can develop anything else, overlooking the fact that these should be baby steps.
You have to start from the basics, have a good grasp on the fundamentals, and create a good foundation on which to build your skills. Only then can you develop anything else.
Another thing that causes learning hell is overconfidence in your own abilities. It’s true that we should never set limits for ourselves, but it’s also true that we should not bite off more than we can chew. The goal is not to build the great wall of China in one day but rather to lay a brick on top of another again and again and measure progress over time.
What makes Tearning Hell similar to Tutorial Hell
Although tutorial hell is usually more common in novice developers, learning hell is mostly common in intermediate developers. This is where the thought that you’re really good leads to a plateau in your career because you simply stop advancing and become complacent.
Complacency is the killer of dreams. Being complacent is when you think you are good enough and better than all your peers. Yes, you might be better at that moment in time, but you won’t stay better for long; soon they will surpass you and you will never catch up again.
This is similar to “Tutorial Hell,” because when you become too comfortable watching tutorials, you stop learning and get into an endless loop of learning the same thing over and over again. A lot of developers watch the same tutorial every three months because they forget everything as soon as they stop watching the video or as soon as they stop reading a blog post.
How to escape Learning hell
The fact is that there are no shortcuts to learning; once we realize this, we will be able to find ways to how we may learn successfully while also advancing tremendously professionally.
I’ve outlined four strategies to assist me regulate my learning and avoid learning hell. These, I am convinced, will assist you in making sound judgments and maximizing your learning potential.
1. Set achievable goals
You don’t need to do everything at once, and you don’t need a specific objective. That is what is actually taking up your time and halting all the advancement you ought to be creating. Avoid setting unreachable or unrealistic goals, such as trying to create five things at once. You won’t gain anything from this in terms of learning. It can only lead to burnout and demotivation when times are difficult and when things don’t seem to be going well.
Before even thinking about the UI, you should break down a large goal, such as creating an app, into smaller goals, such as creating an algorithm for that app or a simple api for its back end. By the time you get to all the details and UI prospects, you should be used to achieving goals. Now all you say is, “Well, next up the UI, and design or build that to finish the first prototype and move on to another goal.”
2. Be ambitious not unrealistic
What do I mean by “ambitious” and “not unrealistic”? I mean, you should come up with an idea and think, “How can I make it unique and difficult?” The more difficult it is to do, the more you’ll learn. Now by “difficult,” I mean according to your perceived skill level. for example. If you come up with an idea, let’s say a “To-Do app,” think to yourself, “How can I take that to-do app and make it my own?” Maybe you can add scheduling and reminders to it.
Now that you have something to add on top of the basic to-do app, you need to build it. Do not watch any tutorials; just start. When you are stuck and cannot find an answer on Google or hack the solution, you can watch a tutorial. But don’t watch “How to Create a To-Do App.” Instead, watch something like “How to trigger an alert on a countdown in Python?” or “How to send notifications from the browser?” Now I am assuming you are working on the reminders and scheduling; when you finally finish those, don’t change to a new project, instead add a new feature on top.
After adding many more features to what began as a to-do app, you will now have a sophisticated piece of software that you are proud of, and in the course of working on it, you will have learned new skills that are complementary to each other instead of an imbalanced skillset that you can’t use anywhere or for anything.
You see, now you have a working app you can show off and a larger skillset.
3. Learn to hack your code
What causes developers to jump from one project to the other is that;
They cave quickly when it gets hard.
They start with something that is not possible at the this moment in there career.
They watch too many tutorials.
A tutorial will almost never align with your own ideas, and it’s difficult to find a tutorial that perfectly fits what you want to learn, so you’ll have to hack your way to a solution. “First, solve the problem.” Then, write the code.” When you have the solution in plain words in your head or written down, you can write the code for it almost 100% of the time.
It’s been said many times before that programming is hard, and that’s the truth, but that doesn’t mean jump ship when you can’t figure something out; that is part of it, figuring things out.
“Nothing is impossible, but you have to work towards it, not on it.” (Sizo Develops). This is where breaking your goal down into smaller goals comes in; you need to have manageable goals in order to be able to track your progress and to avoid burnout.
4. Limit yourself from watching tutorials
Only watch tutorials if you have gone through all the other methods and found no answer; other methods include Stackoverflow, Github, documentation, Google, and most importantly, your own intellect. Your brain knows; you just don’t give it enough to work on, which is why I said you should learn to hack your code, make it work, and then make it pretty.
Conclusion
Setting goals for yourself is the best approach to learn a new skill; without them, you will eventually fall into learning or tutorial hell. Nevertheless, if you know what you want to learn and set an achievable timescale for your learning, and then work within that timescale, you will be able to track your progress.