We have all been in the situation where we were crushing tutorials, building sleek UI, awesome algorithms and everything in-between. Then when we decide to build our own project or even similar projects, everything becomes blank because for some reason, we can't seem to remember how certain things were implemented.
Been there, done that. When I started learning how to write code in 2019, there were many tutorials to choose from. I kept watching tutorials, building projects from the tutorials and writing about them as a way for me to learn. One evening, I decided to build a simple word counter. No tutorial, just me and my VSCode. I froze. The blank screen stared back at me, and I had no idea where to start. That's when it hit me - despite months of tutorials, I couldn't do anything on my own without following someone else's code.
The impostor syndrome was very strong. Each time I opened my laptop, that nagging voice would whisper: "You're not really coding, you're just copying." The worst part? The voice was right. I had become really good at following instructions, but terrible at solving problems.
How did I escape? I decided to build things on my own. I spent 6–8 months building even the simplest projects till I was satisfied with how it looked and worked. Those that saw the light of day, I published on Github and wrote about them. Those that didn't, I discarded them. But here's the thing about those "failed" projects - they taught me more than any successful tutorial follow-along ever did.
With time and as I got better, I started noticing a gap in the learning journey. Sure, there were plenty of algorithm challenges and "build a portfolio" tutorials and other kinds of clones. But where were the exercises that connected these concepts to real-world problems? How do you go from understanding what a binary tree is to actually using that knowledge in a practical scenario?
Fast forward to current times, that gap hasn't been bridged, its actually as though it became wider which is really weird. I decided to build a little project called PlayerOne.
What is PlayerOne? PlayerOne is my pet project that attempts to bridge the learning gap that I experienced. Each challenge wraps the abstract into practical, problem-solving stimulator.
Looking back, those months of struggling through self-directed projects were really eye opening for me. Not because I built anything extraordinary, but because each small victory - each bug fixed, each feature implemented, each concept truly understood - built something more important than code: confidence.
For those currently stuck in tutorial hell, know that it's a phase many of us go through. The key isn't to stop learning from others - it's to start building alongside that learning. Start small. Break things. Fix them. Build them again. Write code you're embarrassed by, then make it better. Because that's how real learning happens.
In the end, escaping tutorial hell isn't about suddenly knowing everything. It's about becoming comfortable with not knowing, but being confident in your ability to figure things out. That's the real breakthrough.
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