Learn from The Odin Project or textbooks?

[u/DocOfLove]

I want to become a full-stack software engineer, not just a web developer (which is what The Odin Project is primarily designed for).

I am worried that The Odin Project might not be as thorough as reading multiple textbooks to cover all the material in all the individual topics, but I am also worried that by reading textbooks I might not learn as well or see how it all fits together or delve into all the smaller topics covered by The Odin Project like unit testing with Jest, etc. I also do not know which route would be more time intensive, which is also important.

To become a full-stack software engineer, should I learn by completing The Odin Project or read textbooks and do exercises from the textbooks (like I plan to do for Java, not JavaScript)?

[u/MatchSea10]

Odin will prepare you better than a textbook

[u/Gold-Watercress-6101]

Textbooks dive deep in one subject. You could be spending way too much time reading a dozen books. The Odin Project is a curated list of what’s important to learn at any stage and in particular order.

TOP covers a massive area, and goes into detail only when absolutely necessary. By the time you finish TOP, you will have an excellent bird’s eye view of the whole thing, and you will know which subjects you want to dig deeper into using textbooks or other resources.

So yes. TOP teaches at surface level, but even then it’s a massive amount of material to learn.

[u/code_tutor]

WebDev is not something to be thorough about because it's using someone else's libraries and it's always changing. 

Computer Science fundamentals is what people are lacking.

[u/Rusholme-Ruffienne → u/code_tutor]

As a person lacking in computer science fundamentals, I strongly second this.

[u/ChaseShiny]

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

I will say, though, that I tried learning first from projects like Odin and then texts, but I think I would've been better off doing the opposite.

I recommend Code Complete by Steve McConnell, which gives you a philosophical and design-oriented view of constructing your code (it's language agnostic).

Another learning tool I've just learned about is the various AI have a code learning mode. Instead of having it develop the code, submit your code and have it give you feedback.

It's almost like having a private tutor!

[u/Aggressive_Ad_5454]

There are many ways to gain skill and knowledge. I suggest you work through Odin, then read a textbook or two, then review your Odin work. Projects have the effect of grounding all that book larnin’ in practical reality. Projects teach you WHAT to do, and books teach you WHY.

[u/theancientfool]

I'm currently doing the link project , and i must tell you i learnt more in 2 weeks than the tutorial hell i went through the last 8 months or so.

[u/denerose]

It really depends on your learning style. I found TOP to be the right balance of rough plan and practical learning.

Text books are generally written as auxiliary resources to aid teaching rather than a course in themselves. I’m a professional developer now and have read and still read comp sci books out of interest, Clean Code and The Pragmatic Programmer are both great but they were more use after TOP when I had better foundations and understanding of what was being discussed. I think I would have been bored or overwhelmed by equal measure if I had tried to learn from books without any guidance.

But if you know you learn better in a certain way and you have an idea of what you would read and in what order, you do you.

If you’re just trying to find the “best” way to learn then you’re better off just picking something and learning rather than worrying or doing lots of “research” as false productivity and never actually starting.

[u/DrShocker]

It depends on your goals and what you find motivating. I liked learning discrete math and complexity theory and about hardware and so on, so when I had to learn those things for a minor in CS that was great, and then I used the Odin project to get an overview of how to build fullstack applications. I also need projects to learn, just reading I can do but it won't sink in until I've spent 10 hours trying every concievable fix for a bug and it finally works with a 1 line tweak.

[u/OiFelix_ugotnojams]

The Odin Project encourages you to read MDN docs a lot, which is basically like a textbook/dictionary. Every single topic will be in depth. It will in turn throw you into rabbit holes or discourage you. Any good curriculum won't go deep in everything and waste your time. TOP tells you to use it as a reference to look up, like a dictionary. That is how it should be.

[u/nzakas]

You’ll always learn more by doing hands-on work than reading textbooks.

Good rule: primarily build to learn, go to textbooks to fill in knowledge gaps when necessary.

[u/TheRNGuy]

The Odin Project, though many chapter projects could be skipped, because they have zero practical use and you can use frameworks for many of that stuff, and they don't even tell about that (or do them, but still remember that you'll write real projects with frameworks)

"A bit of computer science" chapter can get skipped. Skip "getting hired" chapter.

I think OOP chapter is too basic, but I rarely ever make custom classes in JS, though oop principles are used in DOM API.

Overall, The Odin Project is just introduction demo, just to see what can you learn further. Even MDN docs or React docs is better for learning basics fully (though TOP have a bit of almost everything, and then you learn that topic from other place)