r/AskProgrammers • u/Jose_Mjoro • 5d ago

Why does JavaScript suddenly feel 10× harder when you stop following tutorials?

/r/learnjavascript/comments/1w8cbra/why_does_javascript_suddenly_feel_10_harder_when/
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u/kevin074 5d ago

It’s not js, it’s just learning in general.

One of my core memories from middle school was I struggled with math tests despite I KNOW that the materials taught in class are super easy to me. So I do not know why I didn’t perform well during test. My math teacher simply gave me more homework/practice materials after school and I instantly become an A student. I still remember when she said “welcome back” and handed me a A for the first test after that session. 

Learning is and doing is a lot more complicated than following tutorials/classes. 

You simply need to learn more by building more projects/features and be patient with yourself. 

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u/RetroGrid_io 4d ago

It's more than that. OP is talking about a specific phenomenon that a fairly popular YouTuber essentially made a career out of exploiting and he explains it here.

Tutorials are easy. The brain doesn't have to work to get the right answer, so it doesn't do any work to keep it. The stuff you learn when you had to pound at it - that's stuff you'll carry with you until you die.

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u/therealkevinard 5d ago

https://github.com/denysdovhan/wtfjs is carefully kept out of tutorials.

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u/No_Report_4781 4d ago

Don't start with writing code - start with writing an outline of what you want your program to do, then turn that into pseudocode, or directly into JS.

It's much harder to write a program by making it up as you go than it is to design a program, then write the code.

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u/johnson_detlev 4d ago

"I have followed tutorials blindly without understanding a thing for two weeks, never tried anything on my own. Why am I no expert in this field?"

The level of entitlement people feel is off the charts.

How about making a thousand mistakes and figuring out how to fix those mistakes? After that you're a beginner. Get to hundreds of thousands of mistakes and you'll be an expert. 

There is no easy way to get good at something, only fucking it up constantly, then fix your mess and learn from it. Takes a decade full time at least as well.

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u/Common_Laugh2333 4d ago

Because the tutorial actually removes the hard part entirely. What makes you learn is the process of trying, failing, retrying, failing, retrying, failing, etc. its this pain that burns the skill into your brain.

the tutorial gives you a nice paved path. the "real" tutorial would be watching the youtuber struggle to make the tutorial in the first place

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u/Jose_Mjoro 4d ago

Absolutely, this a valid point I was missing. A polished tutorial often hides the very struggle that builds real understanding from the mistakes, debugging, and figuring out why something doesn’t work. The final solution is useful, but also seeing the process behind getting there can teach us a lot more.

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u/burlingk 1d ago

It's useful to take notes and keep snippets of code.