I was once stuck in this tutorial hell until I started building stuffs on my own. At first it was difficult but later on, I got a hang of it. And today, I'm on my way to being a senior developer.
Tutorials and courses are absolutley necessary, especially for self-taught people like myself. I would never suggest that you stop watching them. I still watch them all of the time, but it is important to not be dependant on them. My opinion anyway :)
Yes i started programming with these tutorials. But over time, i started just watching the tutorials overall and then i directly start building projects. Now in just 2 years, now I can learn languages just from documentation. But i still prefer watching these videos first in fast forward to understand basic concepts.
It could be your monitor settings, looks normal to me on my gear - you don't look 'red' I mean, you look the same as you do in every other recent video. Dude, you're an awesome role model. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life."
I didn't know others went through this. I just have this crippling thought that I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING before building my own project. I went through so many courses but I still feel like I'm incompetent and I need to know more.
yauul you’ll never know everything. I built a React front end using MaterialUI knowing limited react and learned MaterialUI by looking at the documentation and using stack overflow. Patience is key!
@@ItsJustFil Similar experience! I started to build an MUI app but then version 4.5.0 just got released 2 hrs after I started. Then my brain started to mess with me again. "Gotta know the latest stuff, check for tutorials and then do it". It's quite difficult to find any tutorial for MUI released this year so I kinda gave up. I'll definitely get back to it again, make mistakes and learn.
@@yauulyauul start building apps and search for required solutions... I am learning this way and it is a very efficient and practical way... you can learn essential things faster because your focus will be also on practical rather than only theories... try to implement your theoretical knowledge each time possible
How to think like a computer programmer. I did a lot of research, on algorithms, so first thing you must do is to conceptualize the app or project, demonstrate it on paper, break it down to smaller pieces, before starting.
One tip to my fellow programmers . Dont wast time on tutorials. Learn the basics and fundamentals from them. Second step is to build your own project. Building your own project will open your mind on thinking and flexibility. If you dont know something thats the best part, you got to do the research and transform online codes based to your needs. There are millions of tutorial that you dont even need and its time consuming and mentally draining. Stick with a big project and find solutions by your own inspired by tutorials. Hope everyone succeeds on its path.
That's great advice Brad. I was kinda in tutorial dependency but after landing my first react dev job I found out that real life projects consist of hundreds if not thousands of components. And one component might include 800 lines of code. And EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING comes from DATABASE. It is not even close to those to-do lists and tutorial websites. So mainly what I do for now is staring at someones legacy code and fixing bugs. I am a frontend-backend react bugfixer. Imo tutors need to change their concept, and maybe try to imitate a real life scenarios including: - creating git branches, and pushing upstream; -committing changes; creating/accepting pull requests. Have all the props in database and fetch them. Dont have premaid css(navbar or positioning) or solutions and search for solution online with students during course. Since most programmers dont write apps from scratch, especially junior ones as and idea for your course might be a ready app with like 40 components and full of bugs and feature requests. So you give challenges to solve bugs and add features. Ending up fixing all the bugs, adding features and have functional app. Here emphasis will be on not learning a technology, but learning a real life developer workflow scenario. So students will not have that rose-colored sunglasses on.
There are many other good online TH-cam teachers available, but no body as honest and good like you.. You have changed my wrong perception. From Bottom of my heart thank you so much. 🙏
I remember watching one of your tutorials back in 2017 about sending text messages through the Nexmo API. Ended up building a web app for the library at my university that sends text messages to students when certain books they're looking for are returned back to the library.
You are, once again on point. I love watching your courses and videos not only for the how to, but also for: 1. The clear, easy to understand way you speak. 2. Honest advise. 3. You project a near one on one experience. 4. It feels like you really care about the success of each person watching. 5. Your humility is awesome. It's obvious you do your research and present a highly polished product but by not pretending you just pulled it out of the air on the fly, goes a long way in keeping me from getting frustrated. I still have a long long way to go but I'm having steady epiphanies now thanks to you and others. Please keep up the good work.
All my Udemy courses are half way done. I continously looked for various blogs, tutorials and read documentation for the technology I am learning. When I resume my course, I find out that I learned more than covered in the entire course. Big respect to you sir. You always guide us to the better future.
I think the problem for many people is that they lack a solid foundation. It's tough to start building something on your own if you have big holes in your knowledge of the basics. I also think that people over estimate their own skills after doing tutorials. They make a ToDo app in JS and react without really understanding what they are doing and without havivng the JS basics down and then think they can make advanced apps using react. What they should do imo is focus on getting their JS (in this case) foundation down and then begin building easy and small projects that they can actually manage and then build and expand on those. Yes, it might not be what you want to do now, but maybe it's better to spend 50+ hours on JS before moving on instead of just jumping straight into taking 5 super cool React tutorials where you lack the prior knowledge to grasp the concepts and ideas presented to you. It's just my opinion and how I work, we all learn differently
I find if I have an Idea of what I want to do, if I have and end in mind, it's not that difficult to code it. Even if I don't know how to do it, the motivation is there to learn how to do it, and I end up learning things that I did not set out to learn in the first place. I don't understand video that say they are teaching someone who may never have programmed before, say JavaScript, but then in the first video introduce complex IDEs and frameworks. So now you have to learn JavaScript, the language of the framework and IDE. But I realize how complex developing apps have become, it's not like one time when you could develope for just Win95. Complexity comes when your app must work on windows, linux tables, phones and TVs. There are some who suggest that beginners begin with a text editor and maybe the command line, because the focus is on the syntax of the language you're learning and programming concepts. I also think programming is the important thing, not the language. Sometimes some of us may be learning a programming language and not learning to program.
I feel the same way, keep learning and learning, but what i found helps is doing bits and pieces of things you know. for example: i do navs in different ways and they come out right. then, i approach a whole page and so on and so on. i watch different videos for ideas and for strategy and architecture. thanks a lot for being so organized Brad. really appreciate your generosity. all the best to you and your family.
1. Deconstructing concepts that are used in project and building other project in which you can use concepts you learned in the tutorial 2. Combining tutorial. learning new features in each tutorial and add them to your project. Do not try to finish many tutorial you can. you have to get concepts. 3.Reading code. This is equal but not less than writing code. Reading code improves you as a programmer. 4.Contributing to open source. It is like your working environment. There is always ganna be some kind of bug in the code which needs to be fixed so this is very very good practise. 5.Stick with the stack that you liked most and seems easy. 6.Solving algorithmic and data-structures related challenges. This helps with breaking down problems and familirizing yourself with syntaxt of the language and overally ganna make you better programmer. 7. Interacting with other developers which ultimately you r ganna do this once you get a job. 8. Reading official docs of your chosen language or framework or library. Thanks Brad. These concepts are definitely ganna make huge difference in your programming life if you follow them seriously.
You're the best teacher I've ever had. Can't say how grateful I am. I just want to absorb all the good characteristics you have. Thanks for everything.
I feel like every time you post a video, you've just spent time in my head because your content always seems to be a bullseye on what I'm going through. I really appreciate you, your knowledge, and videos! Thank you so much for the content you provide us!
I found this recently. Having spent so much time at home I watched and followed a few tutorials but felt I needed to start building things. All of a sudden the tutorials made more sense. When you try to solve your own code problems the material takes on a new meaning and you move from being acquainted with the code to owning it.
You are the real deal. I can tell. My own instructors said don't go out and learn a bunch of stuff you won't use. Stick with your technology and get indept. Thumbs up.
Popup Dev no problem. If you watch ten videos and get nothing from them you leave and neither one of us gets much out of it. Id rather my viewers find success and maybe I had a small part in that and they stick around 😊
@@TraversyMedia Today I learned something more than code. That is being genuine with viewers. Will implement in my youtube channel too, will see you in the path of success. Thanks
I've watched a lot of tutorials many of them really good and helpful but to me this guy is a natural. Clear, concise and convincing. The stuff Traversy streams goes in and sticks. A big help, thanks.
Your being real and discussing common issues inspire me every time I watch your videos. Love your concern about the juniors in the field. Thanks for caring for us and leading us through a an easy way. :)
Hey Brad, this is my 1s year as a frontend js/react dev job. Started as an absolute beginner with your free html crash courses then udemy courses etc. And I really love watching tutorials in the evening. I can watch your or other guys top courses on udemy like HBO series, every day. And honestly I would not call it tutorial hell, its like watching NHL game, or whatsoever. I am just enjoying them after hard day at work (real life react app is much much complicated). Following, learning, watching best practices. Imo there is no need to feel guilty for continuous watching tutorials.
As a rule of thumb, I usually copy paste the: - persistToken.js file for React - Redux setup with composeWithDevtools and the root reducer (just the bare bones, the variables I change with my relevant reducers) - auth.js middleware for Node backend - connectDB function - the conditional to check token in App.js (before the component) The rest I do all by myself. I don't copy/paste this because it's hard, but because it's usually boilerplate. It's boring to type stuff like that over and over again
I promise you that you won't regret it. Once you've made 3 projects of your own, you'll not only feel accomplished and confident in what you've learned but many of the concepts you've studied through tutorials will ironically enough only become clear once you've used them without reference.
No it doesn't. There are a lot of reasons why, I am not sure your specific reason, but I think people don't feel ready and many developers can be very judgmental when it comes to code (I deal with it all of the time) which doesn't make it easier. But you have to just not care about writing "bad code". Jump in and try and just make stuff work, have fun and don't overthink it. Shit I wish I said some of this in the video lol
I left it for a while but got back to gain some more knowledge. That while was so precious and made me feel a real programmer. The thing with with tuts is that you stop being productive while you learning.
New to programming and not ready to break out of tutorial hell just yet but these points are filed away and will be very useful to me when i start building my own projects. Thanks Mr Brad.
I didn't know that this was actually a thing before watching this video. After watching tutorials and courses, I felt very confident that I could actually do something , but then I couldn't and was totally lost. This video really helped Brad, even though I'm a little late on it. Thanks for sharing!
Man this is so true. I just passed General Assembly's Javascript course and I feel like i'm not ready for any job OR I'm gonna be an imposture! This was amazing to listen too and now i'm going to really start breaking down projects just to learn them in a way i can understand and grasp. Once again, thanks for the useful information! You're a life saver, Brad!
I watch a lot of tutorials and courses. I even watch tutorials in my free time, when I'm having my meal ( I stay away from my home). I completely agree with Brad that you don't have to learn every single thing. Here's my point of view why I love tutorials and especially Udemy courses. 1️⃣ They have well-structured content - Because most of us learn these things online and we lack the clarity of what to learn & what to learn next. 2️⃣ They are very very informative. For instance, I recently took the Advanced CSS Course by Jones. I learnt a lot and when I say a lot. I literally means a lot. He's one of the great instructors. He teaches you the best practices ( which I'm really into ) Because when I build my own projects. Most of the time I feel these things a) Am I following the best practice? (In case of React - Am I writing reusable components or just spitting HTML through JS) b) I got it to work, is it actually the right way of doing it or I just found a workaround? c) I write bad code (it's working fine but for some reason, it doesn't look good to me)🙄 I think I need to learn more 3️⃣ They have real-world projects which will teach you a lot of things. I get that if 100K people are taking an online course then all of them are going to have the same projects on their resume. But what I (will) do is I change the project's theme, colour, content, add a couple more section, add some other things that you learnt in the previous course, Make sure you build 2-3 projects before moving on to other course or a new framework as Brad said in the video to "Use what you've learnt so far" I'm super thankful to Brad for everything he does for us. Super-duper thankful. 🤗 I don't have many dev friends so feel free to connect with me @anuragbhagsain on Twitter. I'm learning things to become a Full Stack Developer. If you're on the same journey then let's learn together.😸
Currently I am following a django course on udemy and have been experimenting with different functionalities and apis. Experiments and new projects on your own is the best way to learn!
My goood !!!! When I watched this, I laughed so I almost fell of my chair. This is EXACTLY how I feel. Sometimes I have the feeling that ok, I got it... Then, when trying to do something of my own, I´m totally lost, mixing parameters, using wrong text in wrong place. My goood. Thank you !
Love this! Another thing I do is to pause the tutorial right before adding a certain feature, try to implement it myself, and then continue the tutorial to see if I did it right. I've actually caught some bugs in Brad's tutorials with this method :) BTW, thank you so so soooo much for all you do Brad! I'm a software engineer who left my 9-5 to explore the world of freelancing. I'm used to working with custom frameworks only used by my company so in some aspects I feel like a beginner again. Your tutorials have helped me immensely in regaining my confidence as an engineer and exploring the freelance life!
It's so easy to fall into tutorial hell especially when you want to be a senior web developer in three months because many web platforms are easy to relate with. Thanks BOSS I hope I can get you to mentoring me...
The very interesting think in your talk was that you were speaking the real experience out. I am into programming from last 2 years but really lacked this insight of deconstructing the tutorials and articles instead got happier with stuff that came up as immediate results. Will try to incorporate everything gradually that you mentioned. Thanks Brad
I recently stopped watching so many tutorial videos and instead came up with some projects to do and it's been fun building them. It took some time to get the hang of but after that initial period of not looking for a tutorial to build an app / program and just building it yourself, it vecame a lot more fullfilling. And you learn how to break things down into parts, focus on one, finish it and move onto the next one.
I've just started programming and i have found myself trying to learn everything at once and jumping from project to project and this has led me deeper into the tutorial hell but your great advice has really brought things into focus and i will take your advice to heart,. Thank you for your great advice.You really have no idea how much it has helped. Looking forward to more videos like this.
When I watched your 1 hour c sharp tut at the firs time, I changed the some data but still structure is the same. When I try to add time limit for it, I figured out stack-overflow website.This was the time for me to figure out how different class work and dictionary and read codes from others.After that, I learnt constructors and enum type. Also, go back to algorithm basics😃This is a fast and strange learning path for me but I started to understand how apps, games and programs work. So...Thank you so much to teach and motivate people. World needs people like you👌
I totally agree on the 'deconstruct' part. Get in the habit, asking oneself, what are some of the crucial bits that make something work. Look for areas of insight, where dots are connected. If its interesting, or very interesting, make a note of it in a tech journal.
Great advice. I find myself exactly where you say even after recently completing a BSc in Computing & IT and purchasing many online courses. Just last week I started creating a complete invoice and payroll management system using good old fashioned research, Google and referencing the course I have purchased and watched. Thanks For the vid :)
Yeh? Well good luck writing a payroll engine for UK localisation.. That's a lot of PAYE, NI rules, RTI, court orders, absence management / SSP, SMP, pension, penserver...
I finished your javascript tutorial video and I'm half way through another tutorial on Udemy. I started building my own website 2 days ago and now I can totally understand why everybody says "YOU MUST BUILD YOUR OWN PROJECT!". I have to say that building your own thing is not as easy as making project provided by tutorials but you will learn a lot than just watching tutorials.
I did your React: Front to Back, now I am doing your MERN: Front to Back, I am glad I did them in this order because the React course really prepared me for the MERN course. As In depth as the MERN course is, I am breezing right through it with profound understanding. All credit to you that it is absolutely thorough, there has been no point that I have gotten stuck. Thanks for the great job.
Excellent choice of video and well needed! We're so conditioned to buy books, courses and attend events, but too many of us just sit on the knowledge and don't apply what we know. Thanks for sharing Brad
So, i've been at it for only a few months, so im still in that tutorial phase....but after i watch a tutorial, i try and implement some application using the concepts i learned from some project we did in that course. Or while im building some project in a course , ill first try and see if i can do it on my own or at least some part of it on my own then if you get stuck, keep watching the tutorial. Great thing about the internet is , you don't have to memorize every single thing(which is nearly impossible anways), just know that its possible and you can always look up an example of whatever you are trying to do.
It used to happen to me so many time like so much depending on tutorials , doing it(what they showed) , i feel like i'm okay when watching it. But, later in somedays, i feel like it doesn't imporving my skills . and feel frustrated. By watching this video, it helps me alot. We used to be frustrated waiting time for perfection. What the real thing is, just do it and just apply that technology. Thz Sir, U are such a kind instructor ever. and I wish like to join your Discord Channel too.
@Traversy Media The thing is that most of the people around like prisoned inside tutorial hell jus don't wanna create something by themselves , to actually learn things you need to come outta your comfort zone and do something related to your real life problem. I know for it's gonna be hard but let's jus face it and I totally agree w/ Brad .So thanks Traversy Media for all that but sir please don't discontinue it's crucial for beginners.
Very important advice. I am just over a year into my commitment to learn coding. Taken many tutorials, but I have completed 6 of my own projects. Very happy to have had this advice early on
I really learned a lot from this outspoken guy...:) I mean he is an inspiration. There are 2 other TH-cam channels and my friend to thank, but literally the steps that he told to follow (deconstructing, connecting to Database etc.) are exactly the ones that I had in mind. One other thing that I used to do was searching for an "ideal tutorial", the one that would teach me everything without having to search for other ones and then "combining" them. But then these amazing people taught me that there is no such thing. Thank you sir :) I really admire you
great points. Thanks for the video. I usually just watch the beginning of the project tutorials for getting ideas. I look what you are going to build (or other channels) , stop the video and try to figure it out myself. When I'm finished or even if I got stuck or failed, I come back and watch how you solved it. I don't really see the point of coding along to a tutorial, except for some muscle memory
This is really Great Brad. Currently, I am using your API Masterclass tuts to build something different that will solve a problem in my town and planning to use React for its Frontend.
I saw your videos before. But I did not realise that you are the same guy who made many awesome "crash courses", helped me to unstuck so many times 🔥🔥🔥
Great advice! I caught myself in the same loop and until I decided to create my own webapp using what I'd learned I realized that I learned faster, and actually learned things to memory doing it that way and actually researching the concepts that I needed to implement.
As a college student I deeply relied upon the content/tutorials provided here on TH-cam. So, be it TheNetNinja or Traversy Media or Derek Banas. But, over the time things changed and I have moved on towards reading the docs once the basics are clear. It is not like I don't watch tutorial videos anymore. But the approach has changed. Most of the time now it's like reading the video title I am able to actually guess what components will be used and how the flow will go. It feels good to then verify my thinking process by actually watching the video. I appreciate you Brad for making this video because most of them do not realize things on their own. Moer than that I appreciate your genuineness, integrity, authenticity and originality.
I cant tell you how much I've been wanting you to make a video about tutorial hell! You have the best content on TH-cam for developers and I CANNOT WAIT for your algorithms/data structures videos. I have always had a hard time with leetcode and I know that your content would be extremely helpful for me to learn these concepts.
It's 2 am and I'm thinking how to get out of these tutorials and what to start building... This video popped up on TH-cam suddenly... Right info at the right time... Keep inspiring Brad.. 🔥 The world of developers needs u...
Video on point! I couldn't do without tutorials, they really speed up the learning process and it's as close as it gets to one-to-one training. But it is true that you can deceive yourself by believing that you get something or that you know how to build something as you code along. The reality though is that you're not going to properly learn the stuff without a bit of a headche and frustration and that is scary at the very beginning.
Totally agree with you. When I am doing a course or watch a training video is just watch the use case part, pause the video and try to do it by myself (I also Google or check on stack overflow), then I compare the outcome. I have found out that sometimes I do not agree with the instructor, but at least I understand the intuition behind his code and I just evaluate which solution works the best for me.
Thank you brad. I have been really dependant on tutorials even on the things I understand very well. from now on, I am gonna change this bad habit and try to work on my own ideas. Thank you so much.
I follow two approaches: (1) I use tutorial code as the first base for my project, like the first few commits and then add on extra features of my own to it. This makes me read the code anyway so I am learning while building something new. Then, if I feel I need to remove something I will, in which also helps me learn. I basically use tutorials as open source. (2) Another approach I have done is I just bravely go out and build a brand new project while following each tutorial step. I interpret the fundamentals of each video and apply it to my own project.
Great advice Brad and that was very brutally honest and you're giving actual advice on how to get over that hump. That's what I love about your channel.
One other thing, when stuck, people feel that there's something that they haven't learned yet so they go back watching. But most of the time based on my experience, i simply dont really use my tools well, i already have the knowledge but dont explore other uses of it. Good thing nowadays that im now more of a documentation reader than a tutorial watcher and breaking codes down and see what comprises it rather than stacking codes up to build a feature. Slow process but i thinks it's just the reality of programming.
I can relate to this Brad. I am in the beginning of my web development learning phase and I often bump into watching video courses. And I just type what they say. Thanks a lot for the tips to get out of it👍
I've been teaching myself how to do programming since 2021, and I have to admit that I am still navigating my way out of the Tutorial Hell. And now that I am gearing up for a career transition (I am a licensed Architect in a particular country in SE Asia, and I don't want to go through details on how difficult and mentally taxing it is to be one lol), what I've learned from this journey I'm in is that YT tutorials help, but it does not give you a guarantee that you'll be ready for the real-world programming job experience, until you learn from it by applying it on your own projects. Now, I do my own projects with the help of documentations, Brad's and other programmers' video tutorials here, other programmers, and the drive to be a better programmer. It's difficult to be in this zone, but it's not impossible to get out of here. Thanks, Brad for giving us well-meant pieces of advice.
I started teaching myself for fun in 2018 & got hooked! I went to see what kind of low-income training programs my city (San Diego) had. I was lucky enough to be sent to UCSD in an income share agreement. I am now way more competent in front-end software development & graduate this fall. I am currently applying for junior dev jobs on indeed. I feel like I broke out flying from tutorial hell!
Really helpful stuffs in there....I actually thought myself to be the only one. Glad to know that even someone like you went through the same. Now let's turn this around for good
1. Applying concepts learned to new personal projects 2. Combining tutorials 3. Look at other people's code and google unfamiliar parts 4. Contributing to open-source code 5. Stick with certain sets of technology (unless you're just figuring out what to learn) 6. Algorithm challenges 7. Join a community offline or online 8. Read (good) documentation
I watched the video back in January and I was in tutorial hell but decided to take a course. I've taken your Udemy React course and I got through the first project, the Github finder. So then I decided to start it all over from scratch. I created all of the functionality for it in App.js, yes it was a big mess. But then started to create all of the individual components and went through the prop drilling phase. Then I went through and refactored and added useContext and useReducer. Then I looked at the API and looked to see what other info you could pull in and endpoints and made those components and routes. When I was finished, I wiped it all out and did it again. Instead of everything in App.js, I mapped out the components that I would need and felt I was much more organized the last time and used my own CSS to style it how I wanted to. Then I went back to some of the tutorials I've done like a Todo list and did the same thing but tried to add more functionality like storing the Todos using Mongo.
A while ago in a tutorial, the instructor used arrays of random numbers regularly. So I though: "Can I build an array of random numbers with a function??" Hell yeah!! So I did it. I struggle a little bit but I practiced functions, math methods and loops. And then when the tutorial used random numbers, I generated the array with my own function. It's a silly example but that's the best way to learn. :)
Just build small projects, they don't need to be big. My first projects included: changing color on a button click, a simple counter, random quote generator, just get the basics done and start building small projects that you would need or think would be cool to have, for example, im building a web app where you can save your most favorite fonts, like on google fonts just because I was tired of searching my most favorite fonts over and over again. You could also just save them inside a word file or something but this way you can challenge yourself and learn alot new stuff, with this project I learned a lot about manipulating CSS variables with Javascript.
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I was once stuck in this tutorial hell until I started building stuffs on my own. At first it was difficult but later on, I got a hang of it. And today, I'm on my way to being a senior developer.
Great Job Valentine, keep the hard work!
howw
Tutorials and courses are absolutley necessary, especially for self-taught people like myself. I would never suggest that you stop watching them. I still watch them all of the time, but it is important to not be dependant on them. My opinion anyway :)
I used php and mysql but I want to use flask because I know python better than php
Yes i started programming with these tutorials. But over time, i started just watching the tutorials overall and then i directly start building projects. Now in just 2 years, now I can learn languages just from documentation. But i still prefer watching these videos first in fast forward to understand basic concepts.
@@harshpatel7704 there is limited time for me to develop the website. Which will you prefer I use?
It could be your monitor settings, looks normal to me on my gear - you don't look 'red' I mean, you look the same as you do in every other recent video.
Dude, you're an awesome role model. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life."
Thank you for the advice. Very helpful.
I didn't know others went through this. I just have this crippling thought that I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING before building my own project. I went through so many courses but I still feel like I'm incompetent and I need to know more.
YES!! I see this all of the time. Just start. It does not have to be anywhere near perfect. Just get your hands dirty
yauul you’ll never know everything. I built a React front end using MaterialUI knowing limited react and learned MaterialUI by looking at the documentation and using stack overflow. Patience is key!
@@TraversyMedia Very true. Thank you for this video Brad. We all truly appreciate everything you're doing for this community.
@@ItsJustFil Similar experience! I started to build an MUI app but then version 4.5.0 just got released 2 hrs after I started. Then my brain started to mess with me again. "Gotta know the latest stuff, check for tutorials and then do it". It's quite difficult to find any tutorial for MUI released this year so I kinda gave up.
I'll definitely get back to it again, make mistakes and learn.
@@yauulyauul start building apps and search for required solutions... I am learning this way and it is a very efficient and practical way... you can learn essential things faster because your focus will be also on practical rather than only theories... try to implement your theoretical knowledge each time possible
When you start to work, youtube dependency stops, and Stack Overflow will become your new best friend
How to think like a computer programmer. I did a lot of research, on algorithms, so first thing you must do is to conceptualize the app or project, demonstrate it on paper, break it down to smaller pieces, before starting.
Awesome tip!
Man you gotta be some sort of wizard every time a topic related to coding that im having problems with you release a video about! Thank you so much
Same here man
I agree with you, and this is the principle I used to learn things... :)
One tip to my fellow programmers . Dont wast time on tutorials. Learn the basics and fundamentals from them. Second step is to build your own project. Building your own project will open your mind on thinking and flexibility. If you dont know something thats the best part, you got to do the research and transform online codes based to your needs. There are millions of tutorial that you dont even need and its time consuming and mentally draining. Stick with a big project and find solutions by your own inspired by tutorials. Hope everyone succeeds on its path.
So I take it’s a “I’m not sure how to build x, but I’m gonna learn what it takes to build x”
Hey man, I wanna let you know that I don't know what TH-cam's programming section would be without you. Keep it up! :)
Thanks :)
@@TraversyMedia thank you traversy
It would be null
That's great advice Brad. I was kinda in tutorial dependency but after landing my first react dev job I found out that real life projects consist of hundreds if not thousands of components. And one component might include 800 lines of code. And EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING comes from DATABASE. It is not even close to those to-do lists and tutorial websites.
So mainly what I do for now is staring at someones legacy code and fixing bugs. I am a frontend-backend react bugfixer.
Imo tutors need to change their concept, and maybe try to imitate a real life scenarios including: - creating git branches, and pushing upstream; -committing changes; creating/accepting pull requests.
Have all the props in database and fetch them.
Dont have premaid css(navbar or positioning) or solutions and search for solution online with students during course.
Since most programmers dont write apps from scratch, especially junior ones as and idea for your course might be a ready app with like 40 components and full of bugs and feature requests. So you give challenges to solve bugs and add features. Ending up fixing all the bugs, adding features and have functional app. Here emphasis will be on not learning a technology, but learning a real life developer workflow scenario. So students will not have that rose-colored sunglasses on.
There are many other good online TH-cam teachers available, but no body as honest and good like you.. You have changed my wrong perception.
From Bottom of my heart thank you so much. 🙏
I remember watching one of your tutorials back in 2017 about sending text messages through the Nexmo API. Ended up building a web app for the library at my university that sends text messages to students when certain books they're looking for are returned back to the library.
That is so awesome. I love hearing stuff like that :)
Just build something that comes from your mind, doesnt matter that is not unique
You are, once again on point. I love watching your courses and videos not only for the how to, but also for:
1. The clear, easy to understand way you speak.
2. Honest advise.
3. You project a near one on one experience.
4. It feels like you really care about the success of each person watching.
5. Your humility is awesome. It's obvious you do your research and present a highly polished product but by not pretending you just pulled it out of the air on the fly, goes a long way in keeping me from getting frustrated.
I still have a long long way to go but I'm having steady epiphanies now thanks to you and others. Please keep up the good work.
All my Udemy courses are half way done. I continously looked for various blogs, tutorials and read documentation for the technology I am learning. When I resume my course, I find out that I learned more than covered in the entire course. Big respect to you sir. You always guide us to the better future.
Last week i started internship in local Serbian company. I was learning past 13 months, and yours channel was super useful. Thanks for great content
I think the problem for many people is that they lack a solid foundation. It's tough to start building something on your own if you have big holes in your knowledge of the basics. I also think that people over estimate their own skills after doing tutorials. They make a ToDo app in JS and react without really understanding what they are doing and without havivng the JS basics down and then think they can make advanced apps using react. What they should do imo is focus on getting their JS (in this case) foundation down and then begin building easy and small projects that they can actually manage and then build and expand on those.
Yes, it might not be what you want to do now, but maybe it's better to spend 50+ hours on JS before moving on instead of just jumping straight into taking 5 super cool React tutorials where you lack the prior knowledge to grasp the concepts and ideas presented to you. It's just my opinion and how I work, we all learn differently
I find if I have an Idea of what I want to do, if I have and end in mind, it's not that difficult to code it. Even if I don't know how to do it, the motivation is there to learn how to do it, and I end up learning things that I did not set out to learn in the first place. I don't understand video that say they are teaching someone who may never have programmed before, say JavaScript, but then in the first video introduce complex IDEs and frameworks. So now you have to learn JavaScript, the language of the framework and IDE. But I realize how complex developing apps have become, it's not like one time when you could develope for just Win95. Complexity comes when your app must work on windows, linux tables, phones and TVs. There are some who suggest that beginners begin with a text editor and maybe the command line, because the focus is on the syntax of the language you're learning and programming concepts. I also think programming is the important thing, not the language. Sometimes some of us may be learning a programming language and not learning to program.
Its insane how relevant and helpful your videos always are. You've been a big help in my career. Thank you, Brad!
I feel the same way, keep learning and learning, but what i found helps is doing bits and pieces of things you know. for example: i do navs in different ways and they come out right. then, i approach a whole page and so on and so on. i watch different videos for ideas and for strategy and architecture. thanks a lot for being so organized Brad. really appreciate your generosity. all the best to you and your family.
1. Deconstructing concepts that are used in project and building other project in which you can use concepts you learned in the tutorial
2. Combining tutorial. learning new features in each tutorial and add them to your project. Do not try to finish many tutorial you can. you have to get concepts.
3.Reading code. This is equal but not less than writing code. Reading code improves you as a programmer.
4.Contributing to open source. It is like your working environment. There is always ganna be some kind of bug in the code which needs to be fixed so this is very very good practise.
5.Stick with the stack that you liked most and seems easy.
6.Solving algorithmic and data-structures related challenges. This helps with breaking down problems and familirizing yourself with syntaxt of the language and overally ganna make you better programmer.
7. Interacting with other developers which ultimately you r ganna do this once you get a job.
8. Reading official docs of your chosen language or framework or library.
Thanks Brad. These concepts are definitely ganna make huge difference in your programming life if you follow them seriously.
Brad is a gem of a guy... His advices are precious.
You're the best teacher I've ever had. Can't say how grateful I am. I just want to absorb all the good characteristics you have. Thanks for everything.
I feel like every time you post a video, you've just spent time in my head because your content always seems to be a bullseye on what I'm going through. I really appreciate you, your knowledge, and videos! Thank you so much for the content you provide us!
I found this recently. Having spent so much time at home I watched and followed a few tutorials but felt I needed to start building things. All of a sudden the tutorials made more sense. When you try to solve your own code problems the material takes on a new meaning and you move from being acquainted with the code to owning it.
You are the real deal. I can tell. My own instructors said don't go out and learn a bunch of stuff you won't use. Stick with your technology and get indept. Thumbs up.
07:33 very few people actually say that..
Thanks for always thinking from the viewers point of view rather from a youtuber..
Popup Dev no problem. If you watch ten videos and get nothing from them you leave and neither one of us gets much out of it. Id rather my viewers find success and maybe I had a small part in that and they stick around 😊
@@TraversyMedia Today I learned something more than code. That is being genuine with viewers. Will implement in my youtube channel too, will see you in the path of success. Thanks
@Solve Everything True.. And All the best hope you find your passionate job soon. :)
This is the biggest problem, roadblock I'm facing right now. I really really appreciate your tips and advises. Thank you so much sir.
I've watched a lot of tutorials many of them really good and helpful but to me this guy is a natural. Clear, concise and convincing. The stuff Traversy streams goes in and sticks. A big help, thanks.
Your being real and discussing common issues inspire me every time I watch your videos. Love your concern about the juniors in the field. Thanks for caring for us and leading us through a an easy way. :)
Hey Brad, this is my 1s year as a frontend js/react dev job. Started as an absolute beginner with your free html crash courses then udemy courses etc. And I really love watching tutorials in the evening. I can watch your or other guys top courses on udemy like HBO series, every day. And honestly I would not call it tutorial hell, its like watching NHL game, or whatsoever. I am just enjoying them after hard day at work (real life react app is much much complicated). Following, learning, watching best practices. Imo there is no need to feel guilty for continuous watching tutorials.
As a rule of thumb, I usually copy paste the:
- persistToken.js file for React
- Redux setup with composeWithDevtools and the root reducer (just the bare bones, the variables I change with my relevant reducers)
- auth.js middleware for Node backend
- connectDB function
- the conditional to check token in App.js (before the component)
The rest I do all by myself.
I don't copy/paste this because it's hard, but because it's usually boilerplate. It's boring to type stuff like that over and over again
I'm scared to leave tutorial hell. I know that sounds crazy...smh.
I promise you that you won't regret it. Once you've made 3 projects of your own, you'll not only feel accomplished and confident in what you've learned but many of the concepts you've studied through tutorials will ironically enough only become clear once you've used them without reference.
No it doesn't. There are a lot of reasons why, I am not sure your specific reason, but I think people don't feel ready and many developers can be very judgmental when it comes to code (I deal with it all of the time) which doesn't make it easier. But you have to just not care about writing "bad code". Jump in and try and just make stuff work, have fun and don't overthink it. Shit I wish I said some of this in the video lol
Me too mate. Good luck with that
I left it for a while but got back to gain some more knowledge. That while was so precious and made me feel a real programmer. The thing with with tuts is that you stop being productive while you learning.
@@TraversyMedia well said
New to programming and not ready to break out of tutorial hell just yet but these points are filed away and will be very useful to me when i start building my own projects. Thanks Mr Brad.
I didn't know that this was actually a thing before watching this video. After watching tutorials and courses, I felt very confident that I could actually do something , but then I couldn't and was totally lost. This video really helped Brad, even though I'm a little late on it. Thanks for sharing!
Man this is so true. I just passed General Assembly's Javascript course and I feel like i'm not ready for any job OR I'm gonna be an imposture! This was amazing to listen too and now i'm going to really start breaking down projects just to learn them in a way i can understand and grasp.
Once again, thanks for the useful information! You're a life saver, Brad!
I watch a lot of tutorials and courses. I even watch tutorials in my free time, when I'm having my meal ( I stay away from my home). I completely agree with Brad that you don't have to learn every single thing.
Here's my point of view why I love tutorials and especially Udemy courses.
1️⃣ They have well-structured content - Because most of us learn these things online and we lack the clarity of what to learn & what to learn next.
2️⃣ They are very very informative. For instance, I recently took the Advanced CSS Course by Jones. I learnt a lot and when I say a lot. I literally means a lot. He's one of the great instructors. He teaches you the best practices ( which I'm really into ) Because when I build my own projects. Most of the time I feel these things
a) Am I following the best practice? (In case of React - Am I writing reusable components or just spitting HTML through JS)
b) I got it to work, is it actually the right way of doing it or I just found a workaround?
c) I write bad code (it's working fine but for some reason, it doesn't look good to me)🙄 I think I need to learn more
3️⃣ They have real-world projects which will teach you a lot of things.
I get that if 100K people are taking an online course then all of them are going to have the same projects on their resume.
But what I (will) do is I change the project's theme, colour, content, add a couple more section, add some other things that you learnt in the previous course, Make sure you build 2-3 projects before moving on to other course or a new framework as Brad said in the video to "Use what you've learnt so far"
I'm super thankful to Brad for everything he does for us. Super-duper thankful. 🤗
I don't have many dev friends so feel free to connect with me @anuragbhagsain on Twitter. I'm learning things to become a Full Stack Developer. If you're on the same journey then let's learn together.😸
Currently I am following a django course on udemy and have been experimenting with different functionalities and apis. Experiments and new projects on your own is the best way to learn!
My goood !!!!
When I watched this, I laughed so I almost fell of my chair.
This is EXACTLY how I feel.
Sometimes I have the feeling that ok, I got it...
Then, when trying to do something of my own, I´m totally lost, mixing parameters, using wrong text in wrong place.
My goood.
Thank you !
Love this! Another thing I do is to pause the tutorial right before adding a certain feature, try to implement it myself, and then continue the tutorial to see if I did it right. I've actually caught some bugs in Brad's tutorials with this method :)
BTW, thank you so so soooo much for all you do Brad! I'm a software engineer who left my 9-5 to explore the world of freelancing. I'm used to working with custom frameworks only used by my company so in some aspects I feel like a beginner again. Your tutorials have helped me immensely in regaining my confidence as an engineer and exploring the freelance life!
Very True..!!
I think every programmer who make tutorials should make this kinda video..
It's so easy to fall into tutorial hell especially when you want to be a senior web developer in three months because many web platforms are easy to relate with. Thanks BOSS I hope I can get you to mentoring me...
I just made my project based on my idea by following your udemy course project.
Halwest Rasul exactly what i mean. Use them as a resource not as a lifeline
Wow, your channel is almost 1m subscribers, congrats, it's hard to image that a channel about programming can have it.
He deserve it
No tutorial ever prepared me for any real life work but they did help while I was actually building something.
The very interesting think in your talk was that you were speaking the real experience out.
I am into programming from last 2 years but really lacked this insight of deconstructing the tutorials and articles instead got happier with stuff that came up as immediate results.
Will try to incorporate everything gradually that you mentioned.
Thanks Brad
rarely we see great people like these very humble wanting to help others. if I had a university contact I will give this guy the IT department
I recently stopped watching so many tutorial videos and instead came up with some projects to do and it's been fun building them. It took some time to get the hang of but after that initial period of not looking for a tutorial to build an app / program and just building it yourself, it vecame a lot more fullfilling. And you learn how to break things down into parts, focus on one, finish it and move onto the next one.
Brad the type of guy to suggest the viewers not to watch his videos for revenue, but to actually learn how to learn.
I've just started programming and i have found myself trying to learn everything at once and jumping from project to project and this has led me deeper into the tutorial hell but your great advice has really brought things into focus and i will take your advice to heart,. Thank you for your great advice.You really have no idea how much it has helped. Looking forward to more videos like this.
When I watched your 1 hour c sharp tut at the firs time, I changed the some data but still structure is the same. When I try to add time limit for it, I figured out stack-overflow website.This was the time for me to figure out how different class work and dictionary and read codes from others.After that, I learnt constructors and enum type. Also, go back to algorithm basics😃This is a fast and strange learning path for me but I started to understand how apps, games and programs work. So...Thank you so much to teach and motivate people. World needs people like you👌
I totally agree on the 'deconstruct' part. Get in the habit, asking oneself, what are some of the crucial bits that make something work. Look for areas of insight, where dots are connected. If its interesting, or very interesting, make a note of it in a tech journal.
Great advice. I find myself exactly where you say even after recently completing a BSc in Computing & IT and purchasing many online courses. Just last week I started creating a complete invoice and payroll management system using good old fashioned research, Google and referencing the course I have purchased and watched. Thanks For the vid :)
Yeh? Well good luck writing a payroll engine for UK localisation.. That's a lot of PAYE, NI rules, RTI, court orders, absence management / SSP, SMP, pension, penserver...
This is great, I actually started doing all of this on my own and it’s really great to hear that I’m on the right track
I finished your javascript tutorial video and I'm half way through another tutorial on Udemy. I started building my own website 2 days ago and now I can totally understand why everybody says "YOU MUST BUILD YOUR OWN PROJECT!". I have to say that building your own thing is not as easy as making project provided by tutorials but you will learn a lot than just watching tutorials.
Thank you thank you thank you i have 108 tutorials on my machine i really needed this video to set me straight thank you again
I did your React: Front to Back, now I am doing your MERN: Front to Back, I am glad I did them in this order because the React course really prepared me for the MERN course. As In depth as the MERN course is, I am breezing right through it with profound understanding. All credit to you that it is absolutely thorough, there has been no point that I have gotten stuck.
Thanks for the great job.
Excellent choice of video and well needed! We're so conditioned to buy books, courses and attend events, but too many of us just sit on the knowledge and don't apply what we know.
Thanks for sharing Brad
So, i've been at it for only a few months, so im still in that tutorial phase....but after i watch a tutorial, i try and implement some application using the concepts i learned from some project we did in that course. Or while im building some project in a course , ill first try and see if i can do it on my own or at least some part of it on my own then if you get stuck, keep watching the tutorial. Great thing about the internet is , you don't have to memorize every single thing(which is nearly impossible anways), just know that its possible and you can always look up an example of whatever you are trying to do.
What a valuable lessson from brad, recently i watch your passoword generator tutorial and build completely my way.
It used to happen to me so many time like so much depending on tutorials , doing it(what they showed) , i feel like i'm okay when watching it. But, later in somedays, i feel like it doesn't imporving my skills . and feel frustrated. By watching this video, it helps me alot. We used to be frustrated waiting time for perfection. What the real thing is, just do it and just apply that technology. Thz Sir, U are such a kind instructor ever. and I wish like to join your Discord Channel too.
Your channel is the most amazing resource I've found just recently having started trying to get into web developing. Thanks for everything you do man.
@Traversy Media The thing is that most of the people around like prisoned inside tutorial hell jus don't wanna create something by themselves , to actually learn things you need to come outta your comfort zone and do something related to your real life problem. I know for it's gonna be hard but let's jus face it and I totally agree w/ Brad .So thanks Traversy Media for all that but sir please don't discontinue it's crucial for beginners.
Very important advice. I am just over a year into my commitment to learn coding. Taken many tutorials, but I have completed 6 of my own projects. Very happy to have had this advice early on
I really learned a lot from this outspoken guy...:) I mean he is an inspiration. There are 2 other TH-cam channels and my friend to thank, but literally the steps that he told to follow (deconstructing, connecting to Database etc.) are exactly the ones that I had in mind. One other thing that I used to do was searching for an "ideal tutorial", the one that would teach me everything without having to search for other ones and then "combining" them. But then these amazing people taught me that there is no such thing. Thank you sir :) I really admire you
great points. Thanks for the video.
I usually just watch the beginning of the project tutorials for getting ideas. I look what you are going to build (or other channels) , stop the video and try to figure it out myself. When I'm finished or even if I got stuck or failed, I come back and watch how you solved it. I don't really see the point of coding along to a tutorial, except for some muscle memory
This is really Great Brad. Currently, I am using your API Masterclass tuts to build something different that will solve a problem in my town and planning to use React for its Frontend.
I saw your videos before. But I did not realise that you are the same guy who made many awesome "crash courses", helped me to unstuck so many times 🔥🔥🔥
I was able to create an insurance app backend with your node js masterclass course.God bless you Brad 😉
That's amazing! 👌🏿💯
Great advice! I caught myself in the same loop and until I decided to create my own webapp using what I'd learned I realized that I learned faster, and actually learned things to memory doing it that way and actually researching the concepts that I needed to implement.
Thank you for the advice Brad, that was helpful 'cause lately I've been lost without tutorials and feeling like I know nothing which is so depressing.
As a college student I deeply relied upon the content/tutorials provided here on TH-cam. So, be it TheNetNinja or Traversy Media or Derek Banas.
But, over the time things changed and I have moved on towards reading the docs once the basics are clear. It is not like I don't watch tutorial videos anymore. But the approach has changed. Most of the time now it's like reading the video title I am able to actually guess what components will be used and how the flow will go.
It feels good to then verify my thinking process by actually watching the video. I appreciate you Brad for making this video because most of them do not realize things on their own. Moer than that I appreciate your genuineness, integrity, authenticity and originality.
Your advice videos have a lot of substance. I even had to take written notes on this one.
I cant tell you how much I've been wanting you to make a video about tutorial hell! You have the best content on TH-cam for developers and I CANNOT WAIT for your algorithms/data structures videos. I have always had a hard time with leetcode and I know that your content would be extremely helpful for me to learn these concepts.
when ever you come out with a video my brain burst out 😫 so much to learn from you thankyou
It's 2 am and I'm thinking how to get out of these tutorials and what to start building... This video popped up on TH-cam suddenly... Right info at the right time... Keep inspiring Brad.. 🔥 The world of developers needs u...
I needed to hear this once again as I've fallen into tutorial hell again during this quarantine as I've decided to learn C++. Thanks!
Video on point!
I couldn't do without tutorials, they really speed up the learning process and it's as close as it gets to one-to-one training. But it is true that you can deceive yourself by believing that you get something or that you know how to build something as you code along. The reality though is that you're not going to properly learn the stuff without a bit of a headche and frustration and that is scary at the very beginning.
I am very glad to see u first time. Your suggestions are very precious for us as freelancer
Totally agree with you. When I am doing a course or watch a training video is just watch the use case part, pause the video and try to do it by myself (I also Google or check on stack overflow), then I compare the outcome. I have found out that sometimes I do not agree with the instructor, but at least I understand the intuition behind his code and I just evaluate which solution works the best for me.
Thank you brad. I have been really dependant on tutorials even on the things I understand very well. from now on, I am gonna change this bad habit and try to work on my own ideas. Thank you so much.
Thank you SO MUCH Brad. You helped me to Sort-out My Life !!!. I Owe You a Lot !!! Bless You !!!
Brad is such a huge inspiration. I just love your content
I follow two approaches:
(1) I use tutorial code as the first base for my project, like the first few commits and then add on extra features of my own to it. This makes me read the code anyway so I am learning while building something new. Then, if I feel I need to remove something I will, in which also helps me learn. I basically use tutorials as open source.
(2) Another approach I have done is I just bravely go out and build a brand new project while following each tutorial step. I interpret the fundamentals of each video and apply it to my own project.
Great advice Brad and that was very brutally honest and you're giving actual advice on how to get over that hump. That's what I love about your channel.
You're such a great guy Brad giving all these advice. Keep up the great work! :)
You know sh*t got real when the tutorial creator makes a video about escaping tut hell
Just being honest. Also, tutorials are very important and I would never say don't watch them. But they need to be used as a resource, not a crutch
@@TraversyMedia hahaha I totally agree.. btw I loove your channel, I've been here since like 2017!
This seriously is an essential video. Thanks for this, as i definitely let myself get stuck here for too long.
I love how this guy is just genuine
One other thing, when stuck, people feel that there's something that they haven't learned yet so they go back watching. But most of the time based on my experience, i simply dont really use my tools well, i already have the knowledge but dont explore other uses of it. Good thing nowadays that im now more of a documentation reader than a tutorial watcher and breaking codes down and see what comprises it rather than stacking codes up to build a feature.
Slow process but i thinks it's just the reality of programming.
Brad, you're just awesome. Thank you for being so honest about things.
This is great, I'm just starting to learn how to code and this information is godsent. Also, you channel is a goldmine, I'm on a bingewatch.
I can relate to this Brad. I am in the beginning of my web development learning phase and I often bump into watching video courses. And I just type what they say. Thanks a lot for the tips to get out of it👍
A man of the people. Respect.
From my deep heart, thank you man so much. Your videos always come at the right time.
I've been teaching myself how to do programming since 2021, and I have to admit that I am still navigating my way out of the Tutorial Hell. And now that I am gearing up for a career transition (I am a licensed Architect in a particular country in SE Asia, and I don't want to go through details on how difficult and mentally taxing it is to be one lol), what I've learned from this journey I'm in is that YT tutorials help, but it does not give you a guarantee that you'll be ready for the real-world programming job experience, until you learn from it by applying it on your own projects. Now, I do my own projects with the help of documentations, Brad's and other programmers' video tutorials here, other programmers, and the drive to be a better programmer.
It's difficult to be in this zone, but it's not impossible to get out of here. Thanks, Brad for giving us well-meant pieces of advice.
I started teaching myself for fun in 2018 & got hooked! I went to see what kind of low-income training programs my city (San Diego) had. I was lucky enough to be sent to UCSD in an income share agreement. I am now way more competent in front-end software development & graduate this fall. I am currently applying for junior dev jobs on indeed. I feel like I broke out flying from tutorial hell!
Really helpful stuffs in there....I actually thought myself to be the only one. Glad to know that even someone like you went through the same. Now let's turn this around for good
1. Applying concepts learned to new personal projects
2. Combining tutorials
3. Look at other people's code and google unfamiliar parts
4. Contributing to open-source code
5. Stick with certain sets of technology (unless you're just figuring out what to learn)
6. Algorithm challenges
7. Join a community offline or online
8. Read (good) documentation
I watched the video back in January and I was in tutorial hell but decided to take a course. I've taken your Udemy React course and I got through the first project, the Github finder. So then I decided to start it all over from scratch. I created all of the functionality for it in App.js, yes it was a big mess. But then started to create all of the individual components and went through the prop drilling phase. Then I went through and refactored and added useContext and useReducer. Then I looked at the API and looked to see what other info you could pull in and endpoints and made those components and routes. When I was finished, I wiped it all out and did it again. Instead of everything in App.js, I mapped out the components that I would need and felt I was much more organized the last time and used my own CSS to style it how I wanted to. Then I went back to some of the tutorials I've done like a Todo list and did the same thing but tried to add more functionality like storing the Todos using Mongo.
A while ago in a tutorial, the instructor used arrays of random numbers regularly. So I though: "Can I build an array of random numbers with a function??" Hell yeah!! So I did it. I struggle a little bit but I practiced functions, math methods and loops. And then when the tutorial used random numbers, I generated the array with my own function. It's a silly example but that's the best way to learn. :)
Just build small projects, they don't need to be big. My first projects included: changing color on a button click, a simple counter, random quote generator, just get the basics done and start building small projects that you would need or think would be cool to have, for example, im building a web app where you can save your most favorite fonts, like on google fonts just because I was tired of searching my most favorite fonts over and over again. You could also just save them inside a word file or something but this way you can challenge yourself and learn alot new stuff, with this project I learned a lot about manipulating CSS variables with Javascript.