What I Learned From Building Small Projects Instead of Just Watching Tutorials
When I started learning development, I spent a lot of time watching tutorials. I could follow along with the code and understand most of what the instructor was doing, but when I opened a blank project, I often had no idea where to start. That changed when I started building small projects on my own. Small projects expose the gaps in your knowledge A tutorial usually gives you the solution before…
The author of the Dev.to article shares their experience of transitioning from watching development tutorials to building small projects independently. They found that small projects helped expose gaps in their knowledge, as tutorials typically provide the solution upfront. By dealing with unexpected problems and structuring their projects, the author discovered exactly what they needed to learn next.
The author also emphasizes the importance of getting stuck and learning how to troubleshoot errors independently, rather than immediately seeking a tutorial. They highlight that documentation is a crucial skill to practice, as it teaches developers how to find reliable information beyond tutorial examples. Ultimately, the author suggests viewing learning development as a cycle of building, getting stuck, investigating, fixing, and improving, rather than relying on pre-defined solutions.
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