In a world where you have access to all the content imaginable, I feel that some people have forgotten the appropriate way to learn. Content, be that a tutorial, a YouTube short, or a blog post like this, can promise you the world with an outcome, but conveniently leaves out the part about the hard work required to learn anything.
Being stuck in tutorial hell can feel like pushing a rock up a hill. It’s ambiguous whether you’re actually learning anything. I remember spending weeks following a React tutorial only to realize I couldn’t build a single component without looking back at the video. That was the moment I realised I was consuming content, not learning.
I’m going to share my approach to learning, specifically coding topics, but this could easily apply to other subjects too.
The Risk of Modern Learning
It’s worth mentioning that learning, in my opinion, is the most dangerous it has ever been. With the introduction of AI, it now takes mere seconds to create a LinkedIn post and shovel out whatever comes from your prompt into the post box and press publish.
There is no watchman for the AI. Sometimes it gets things right, but it can also easily get things wrong, and you, the student on said topic, are none the wiser. I’m not saying avoid AI at all costs; it’s a useful tool, but that’s all it is—a tool. You should be validating its output by reading relevant documentation to ensure it’s correct.
The allure of speed is intoxicating, but that speed comes at a cost, and that cost is understanding. When used wisely, AI can actually help you learn faster, but only if you stay in control of the process.
Why I Dislike “Build X From Scratch” Videos
It’s an abstraction. Someone has done all the hard work, read the docs, built prototypes, and created a project. Now it’s time to monetise and cash in on the thousands of people who think that loosely watching a video at 1.5x speed teaches them anything more than a surface-level understanding.
These videos are purely monkey see, monkey do, and reward you with a nice GitHub repo without the real reward: understanding the rendering techniques of Next.js, for example.
My Process for Learning Anything
To start, I’d like to foreword that this is nothing new. It should be used less as a guide and more as a reminder of how to actually learn, rather than watching fruit dance on a YouTube short and expecting to know how to grow fruit.
Remember that your time is money. Quite literally in today’s world, I could make a short that gives you 30 percent of a concept, so you watch it 15 times to fully understand it, only to forget it a week later and watch again another 15 times.
Learning something is hard. Expect to put in the hours to fully understand a concept. Prepare yourself and accept that you might not learn it, if it’s a large one, in a day, a week, or even a month.
First, I start with my note-taking tool. Personally, I use Obsidian because I like to own my data. However, any note-taking app or combination of writing tools, like a pen or pencil and some thin horizontal tree skin, will work.
I start by writing a summary of what I’m going to learn and the questions I should be able to answer by the end of my learning session. If you want to get fancy, you can also add any linked topics that might branch off from this one.
Next, I find resources that I trust: official documentation, MDN, or Wikipedia. We’re not in school—it’s normally accurate enough. I read, take notes, and if I get stuck, I’ll post that section into my LLM of choice, giving it the context of my notes rather than letting it just guess.
From here, I have an understanding, not a complete or deep one yet, but a loose, untested understanding of the concept I’m learning. Now it’s time to put it into practice. Prototype on Stackblitz, build a portfolio piece, apply your theory, and try explaining the concept to someone. Keep it short—it also looks good on a CV.
How to Know You’re Actually Learning
There are a few simple signs that tell me when something has clicked.
- You can explain the concept to someone else without looking at your notes.
- You can build a smaller version of what you learned without copying code.
- You can connect what you just learned to something you already know.
When those things start to happen, that’s when you know you’re truly learning.
Final Thoughts
I’ve applied this pattern to almost all my learning over the past seven years and have been able to stay consistent with tech. I like to think I’m quite knowledgeable in the specialism I’ve chosen. It’s freeing to know that you can learn literally anything with enough hard work.
True learning isn’t about speed. It’s about depth, patience, and curiosity.
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