Like many developers, I struggled for a long time trying to “level up” my frontend skills. I followed countless courses, watched endless tutorials, joined bootcamps, and consumed a mountain of content. And yet… I didn’t feel like I was actually getting better.
I knew more, but I couldn’t do more. And that’s a frustrating place to be.
The Trap of Passive Learning
I spent months reading about best practices in software engineering, React.js patterns, CSS architecture, and backend concepts like data modeling. I could talk about things like separation of concerns, accessibility, and performance optimization — but when it came time to build something from scratch, I froze.
It became clear: knowledge without experience wasn’t enough.
The Shift: Build Something Real
Eventually, I decided to stop watching and start building. No more toy projects. I wanted something real, something that would challenge me across the entire stack.
That’s when I started working on Onepin, a tool where users can pin and manage anything important to them in one place.
Unlike tutorials that hand you the solution, this project gave me no safety net. I had to figure things out, break things, fix them, and slowly connect all the dots.
The Gaps I Didn’t Know I Had
Working on Onepin exposed all kinds of blind spots I didn’t realize I had:
- React: State management, performance optimizations, and component architecture all became very real problems.
- CSS: I discovered how limited my knowledge was when it came to responsive design, layout systems, and accessibility.
- Databases: Building real features meant thinking carefully about schemas, indexing, and query optimization.
- Error handling: Tutorials rarely cover this deeply. In a real app, you’re forced to gracefully handle loading states, edge cases, auth failures, and unexpected server errors.
- Code architecture: I had to make decisions about folder structure, service layers, hooks, utility functions — things no course could ever decide for me.
Each bug and every feature request became an opportunity to go deeper. The project didn’t just teach me how to code. it taught me how to think like an engineer.
My Biggest Takeaway
You can’t shortcut experience.
Tutorials are a great starting point. But at some point, you have to stop being a passive learner and become an active builder. Pick a project, something meaningful, and commit to it — from start to finish. That’s where real growth happens.
Final Thought
If you feel stuck in your frontend journey, I’ve been there. And I can tell you: the answer isn’t in another video course. It’s in the act of building.
For me, that project was Onepin. For you, it might be something completely different. But one thing’s for sure — the only way up is through real work.
Build something. Struggle through it. Ship it. That’s how you level up.
Top comments (2)
How did you decide what features to include in your first real project, and did you ever scale back your ideas to avoid feeling overwhelmed?
When I started working on onepin, I had this huge vision in my head, custom flows, AI features, integrations... . But I quickly realized trying to build everything at once would burn me out and leave me with nothing usable.
So I focused on just one core problem: how can I help users pin and track one important goal? From there, I broke it into the smallest set of features that could actually deliver value, things like creating a roadmap, organizing tasks, and tracking progress.
Whenever I felt overwhelmed, I reminded myself: this isn’t the final version, it’s just version 1. The goal was to finish, not to make it perfect.
The truth is, constraints saved me. Fewer features meant deeper learning. And once the foundation was solid, I could build more with confidence.