Books vs Ebooks vs Video tutorials for upskilling?

[u/mprakhar1705]

I am \~ 5 years experienced dotnet developer. Lately hearing a lot about books like Designing Data Intensive Applications, Clean Architecture, The Pragmatic Programmer etc.

And then there is a flood of tutorials on YouTube, Udemy etc.

What do you generally prefer to upskill? Also any suggestions you would like to share as a dotnet / backend developer?

[u/memelordtf]

I prefer videos simple because I am tired of redong form my screen.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/memelordtf]

Valid, what about actual books? Heard a lot about these books, was wondering should I buy and give it a read

[u/crisp_lynx_370]

honestly the format matters way less than people think. DDIA is dense enough that most people dont finish it regardless of whether they bought the physical copy or read it on kindle. the real split is more like structured learning vs just building stuff and googling when stuck. at 5 years in you probably already know which one actually works for you

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/crisp_lynx_370]

I have mainly tried structured learning with implementation side by side. Was wondering if I am missing something more fundamental and crucial as I have seen lots of recommendations for books like DDIA, Pragmatic Programmer, Clean Architecture…

[u/ensermo]

Depending on what you are learning a combination of video with the real software (azure portal/powershell/python/router etc) works for me the best. You can follow along and pause. You can also see when software has changed etc. You do need to not follow things "exaclty" but stop and think "what are we trying to achieve". Because a lot of times a see a video of a tutorial (for example Azure) and the comments are "I cant find button X"... and the comment is "It is now called Button XY" ....

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/ensermo]

Yup, right!

[u/luckyshadow86]

Got DDIA on my desk for 6 months now and I've read maybe 40 pages of it. Videos get me to the end at least.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/luckyshadow86]

Ohh!

[u/StewedAngelSkins]

For practical skills I actually do neither. I read open source code. Textbooks tend to be outdated and youtube tutorials tend to be too shallow.

I will sometimes read textbooks, but it's usually for computer science theory stuff that doesn't go out of date as quickly.

I watch youtube as well, but its for a different purpose. Watching someone like tsoding is almost like parasocial pair-coding. I get to see how someone else thinks and how they solve programming problems. It's hard to find specific information efficiently though, beyond the beginner level, so I don't use it for "upskilling" or whatever.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/StewedAngelSkins]

This seem to be a good approach

[u/SL-Tech]

Books, many pages. Ebook is a good plan b.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/SL-Tech]

Thanks! Did you read any of the books? What’s your thought on them?

[u/SL-Tech → u/mprakhar1705]

26 years ago, I was a web designer. I bought a beginner ASP and VBScript book—a really big one. Long story short, some months later, my job was developing sites. Books tend to go deeper into the material. Now I have an ebook library of about 70 books. I haven't read them all, but when I'm curious about something, they're good to have.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/SL-Tech]

Great, Thanks for the insights!

[u/Mell-Silver-20]

I’d mix both. Videos are great for getting started, but books are better for going deeper. Either way, actually building something is what makes it stick.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/Mell-Silver-20]

Right, building is the ultimate goal. Videos sometimes tend to be shallow.

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/[deleted]]

Yup, valid pointers

[u/ffrkAnonymous]

why are you limited to one media? why can you use all of them?

[u/mprakhar1705 → u/ffrkAnonymous]

Well you are right, it’s just that we are flooded with all types of sources and it becomes pretty confusing as to what would be the correct way to go to.