DEV Community: Alpesh Borekar

Why Tutorial Hell Isn’t About Watching Too Many Tutorials

Alpesh Borekar — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 17:54:38 +0000

If you’ve spent months going from tutorial to tutorial and still freeze up in front of a blank file, you’ve probably already been told the fix is “just build something.” That advice is correct, but it skips the part that actually matters: why following tutorials doesn’t transfer into being able to build things on your own.

What’s actually happening

A tutorial hands you a fully-scoped problem. Someone else has already decided:

What the app does
What the file structure looks like
Which libraries to use and which versions
What “done” looks like

When you follow along, you’re practicing typing and pattern recognition — recognizing “oh, this is the part where we set up routes” — not practicing the skill of deciding what routes you need in the first place. Those are different skills. Tutorials train the first one very well and the second one almost not at all.

That’s why it’s possible to complete twenty tutorials and still not know where to start on an empty project. You were never practicing “starting.”

A more useful way to think about it

Instead of asking “have I watched enough tutorials,” ask: “Have I made any decisions on my own yet?”

Decisions include things like:

Choosing which of two approaches to use, even a small one (should this be one component or two?)
Deciding what a function should be named and what it’s responsible for
Figuring out why something broke without being told the answer
Deciding a feature isn’t worth building yet and cutting it

None of these require an original idea. You can clone the idea of a to-do app and still make dozens of real decisions building it, because the tutorial isn’t sitting next to you deciding for you anymore.

A practical exercise

If you want a concrete way to break the pattern this week:

Pick a tutorial you already followed once.
Close it.
Rebuild the same project from memory, allowing yourself to look up syntax (how do I write a for-loop in this language) but not structure or decisions (what should the folder layout be, what should happen when the form submits).
When you get stuck, sit with it for at least 10–15 minutes before searching. Getting stuck and reasoning your way out is the actual rep you’re trying to get.

You’ll almost certainly build something worse than the original tutorial’s version. That’s fine — worse-but-yours produces more learning than perfect-but-copied.

// Example: instead of copying this structure verbatim,
// try writing your own version of "what should this function do"
// before checking how the tutorial did it.
function calculateTotal(cartItems) {
  return cartItems.reduce((total, item) => total + item.price * item.quantity, 0);
}

Small decisions like “should tax be calculated here or in a separate function” are exactly the kind of thing tutorials make for you. Making them yourself, even on a toy project, is the actual exit from tutorial hell.

Discussion question: If you’ve gotten stuck in tutorial hell before, what do you think was actually missing — was it a decisions problem like this, or something else (motivation, direction, not knowing what to build)?

I stopped collecting tutorials and started building smaller projects

Alpesh Borekar — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 17:23:49 +0000

For a while, my learning process looked like this:

Tutorial → notes → another tutorial → another technology → repeat.

I was learning a lot, but it wasn't always translating into the ability to build something from scratch.

What I've been trying instead is a much simpler loop:

Learn one concept → build something small → get stuck → debug it → document what I learned → move on.

For example, instead of spending days trying to completely master a framework before using it, I can build a small feature with it and learn the missing pieces when I actually need them.

Getting stuck has become part of the learning process rather than something I try to avoid.

I'm still experimenting with this approach, but one thing I like about it is that my learning produces something tangible instead of another folder full of saved tutorials.

What's one learning approach that actually helped you move from “I understand the tutorial” to “I can build this myself”?

webdev #programming #learning #developers #career

Your project doesn't need more features. It needs one thing: a clear problem.

Alpesh Borekar — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 21:03:30 +0000

I've noticed something while building projects:
It's very easy to keep adding features just because you can.
Authentication ✅
Dark mode ✅
Dashboard ✅
Notifications ✅
Admin panel ✅
Some random AI feature ✅
And then you look at the project and realize:
"Wait... what problem is this actually solving?"
I'm trying to change the way I build projects.
Before writing code, I want to answer 3 questions:

Who is this for? If the answer is "everyone," I probably haven't defined the user properly.
What specific problem does it solve? Not "it's an AI platform." Something more concrete like: "It helps X do Y without having to Z."
Would someone actually use it? Even if the answer is uncertain, thinking about this before coding can prevent spending weeks building something nobody needs. I've also started thinking about projects less as: "What technologies can I put on my resume?" and more as: "What useful thing can I build with those technologies?" Still learning, but I think this mindset makes projects much more interesting. Developers who build side projects: what's one feature you spent way too much time building that turned out not to matter? 👀

New here — sharing what I’ve learned from building, breaking, and debugging

Alpesh Borekar — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:45:44 +0000

Hey everyone 👋
I’m new to the DEV Community, so I thought I’d introduce myself.
I’ve been spending a good amount of time learning and building software, working with things like JavaScript, Node.js, backend development, databases, APIs, and DSA.
Over time, I’ve learned that development is much less about knowing every technology and much more about knowing how to approach a problem when you don't know the answer immediately.
Some things I've learned through actually building projects:
Debugging is often more valuable than writing the initial code.
Understanding why something works is more important than just making it work.
Good backend development requires thinking about failures, not just successful requests.
DSA becomes easier when you start recognizing patterns instead of memorizing solutions.
Documentation and reading other people's code are skills worth developing early.
I’m joining DEV because I want to start documenting what I learn — not just tutorials, but the mistakes, solutions, and practical things I wish I had understood earlier.
I’ll also be sharing some of the projects I'm working on and what I learn while building them.
Looking forward to learning from everyone here.
What was one development lesson you learned only after building real projects?