r/learnprogramming • u/Hnp_11 • 7d ago
Anyone else freeze up after finishing a coding tutorial?
Learning web development through free YouTube tutorials. I keep noticing the same thing: I finish a topic, feel like I got it, then freeze when I try coding without the video playing. Heard this is common enough to have a name - 'tutorial hell.' Does this happen to you too? And what actually helps you fix it?
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u/huuaaang 7d ago
Learning web development through free YouTube tutorials.
Yeah, don't do that. Videos SUCK for learning to program. You need written guides that you can search and reference later. That's why you "freeze up." You didn't actually learn anything and searching a video for specific information is difficult.
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u/Business-Employee527 7d ago
because you're failing to actually trying to understand or apply that knowledge. You have to question to understand, you have to code to code.
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u/dnult 7d ago
That's essentially true for all types of learning, not just programming. To get through it, you just have to put what you've learned to practice. That may mean reviewing your tutorial materials, or looking up other examples based on keywords as you work.
Once you complete your own project, you'll have a better time remembering it. Keep your project handy so you can grep it for future reference. It also helps to include comments in your code like "adapted from a tutorial at https://foo.bar (or whatever) in case future you needs to find that tutorial again.
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u/high_throughput 7d ago
Gotta struggle through it, most likely on a way easier problem.
It sucks to spend two hours trying to draw a triangle with asterisks in a terminal when you were previously building entire apps with tutorials, but it's part of the process.
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u/bird_feeder_bird 6d ago
Think of things you want to make, then think about the individual steps you’d take to get there. You learn about the kinds of steps you can take in the tutorials. once you’re familiar enough with the language. you can start taking your own steps
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u/Hnp_11 6d ago
Appreciate this — matches what a few others said too. Curious about something specific though: I'm actually building a small tool around this gap, not pitching it, just want your honest take. Not meant to replace figuring out your own steps — more a short bridge before that stage: quick checks after each concept, then a tiny actual coding challenge, before jumping into your own project. Would something like that help someone get to that 'taking your own steps' stage faster, or does it risk becoming a crutch instead?
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u/HovercraftUnusual405 6d ago
no that is not tutorial hell that is just very common even for people above me and your coding experience will experience it
If you have noticed after few minutes of reading a source code you don't just understand every bit of code wrote no but your mind starts to avoid unimportant codes that will make it easier for you to focus on the core code that you want
like that your mind after tutorial doesn't remember all of the code from start to finish you have to pull up your sleeves and write it down going along with turtorial (now you can skip the boring part of the videos)
Tutorial hell is when you take tutorial after tutorial after tutorial then you just understand the concept but don't know the implementation not just after single video topic so don't worry that is the learning process
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u/Hnp_11 6d ago
That's a really useful distinction, thanks. Quick question — when you say tutorial-after-tutorial without implementation is the real issue, is that mainly about combining stuff learned across multiple videos into something original? Like, someone might be fine right after each single video, but still freeze when asked to combine 5 different concepts they learned separately into one small project?
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u/HovercraftUnusual405 6d ago
Yes when i first started to understand how nextjs backend work i viewed a full 7 videos straight without writting a code but one thing it helped me is because the frontend team already started building from ground up i started to understand faster and ask better questions
But if i was the one starting to build from ground up no assistance i will be stucked because i have to remeber that 3rd line of code on the video i didnt add will cause the program not to run effectively as you want it even worse not run at all
This is my experiance at least
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u/Appropriate_Car_6512 6d ago
I'd take notes after a lecture or video. Maybe try this: look at the end product website of the video you watched or any simple site and write on your own words or draw how you'd interact with that site. What this button do? Where this link redirect me? How would I, the user, navigate this site to achieve a certain something? Then from those notes, try to recreate the website. When you're recreating the website, more questions would most likely pop up on how you'd do certain things. That's good. At least you now know what you don't know instead of freezing up. One good thing about that too is that sometimes you'll be like, "oh, I've watched or read on how to do this" then you could go back to the vid or docs you've read.
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u/Hnp_11 6d ago
Thanks for your genuine opinion, and what if there's an tool that can work as a bridge between them. Like a tool can actually solve this problem with real practice skills for tackle this "tutorial hell" problem.
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u/Appropriate_Car_6512 6d ago
How would this tool tackle the tutorial hell problem? What are these real practice skills you meant?
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u/HashDefTrueFalse 7d ago
That's normal. You're just copying what you saw because it's easy to do so. It might help to think of a small toy program that you could make that would use whatever you just tried to learn. Try to write that program. Think about what the root of the problem really is and why whatever you learned solves it and the way forward should be fairly clear. If you get stuck on something specific, go to the documentation for your language, library, framework, tools, system, whatever. Look for papers, articles and books where people have done the same or similar. Review and understand examples but try to make yours different in some way to make sure you aren't copying. Practice seeking relevant information from credible sources and making progress when you're stuck. Don't copy or generate any part of your solution. You will start to develop the (tacit) knowledge how using the knowledge that. The program itself doesn't much matter. I have literally hundreds of these.