My buddy told me to skip tutorials and just build something, worst advice ever

My friend Jake who works at a startup in Austin said I should stop watching tutorials and just jump into a project head first. I spent 3 whole weekends trying to make a to-do list app in React and ended up with so many bugs I just gave up. Turns out I was missing basic JavaScript stuff like array methods and event handling. Has anyone else been burned by the 'just build something' advice when you were brand new?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethf8512d ago

Used to think "just build something" was the golden rule, but your story totally changed my mind. Wasting three weekends on a buggy mess because you skipped the basics sounds identical to trying to bake a cake without knowing what flour is. Now I feel like a complete idiot for parroting that advice to new people without thinking it through first.

wadeg9212d ago

That "just build something" advice is like telling someone to drive stick shift before they even know where the clutch is lol. It's the same pattern I see everywhere - people skip the boring basics because they want results fast, then get frustrated when it all falls apart. You gotta crawl before you walk, especially with coding where one missing semicolon can ruin your whole weekend.