Project based tutorial caution

#beginners #selftaught #tutorial #community

Being self-taught, it didn't take me long in my journey to end up exposed to a project-based tutorial. Regardless of the fact that some are extremely high quality, I almost immediately realized that the tutorial is only as good as your approach to it.
Once I engaged in the community (which took me longer than it should have), I was able to confirm what before was a personal realization. Project based tutorials can HURT just as much as it could potentially help.
Coming from a background of education and emergency medical services, I know very well that digesting information and knowing the "why" rather than the "how" is precisely the difference between being competent vs being capable.
Tired of seeing some good mates with amazing portfolios struggling to code real time has led me to write this post. Enough with the copy and paste. You're wasting what is likely good material by taking the wrong approach.
Here's my humble advice. When watching tutorials (especially project based) try your best to learn the concept, rather than "code-along" as its usually advised.
Coding along doesn't have to mean "copy line by line". As a matter of fact, don't even code the SAME project. Come up with your own project that utilizes the same concepts and as you progress through the tutorial, implement the concepts learned.
That will ensure, that you're not memorizing the project, but rather digesting the information being given, and reenforcing the knowledge by true application.
That is how you increase acquired knowledge and is then able to reproduce the skills learned in any scenario. Example: If watching a tutorial on how to fetch data from a particular API, at the end of the tutorial you should be able to feel relatively comfortable with fetching data from ANY API.
To conclude, therefore, project-based tutorials are simply tools. The final outcome of using a tool comes with your decision on how to use it.
Good luck on your journey