I finally stopped copying tutorials word for word and actually understood what I was typing

Posted by Any-Mortgage2280@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 25 comments

For the longest time I thought I was learning to code but really I was just copying.
I’d follow youtube tutorials line by line, everything worked and I’d feel smart for five minutes until I tried writing something on my own and realized I didn’t understand any of it.
Last week I decided to rebuild a small project from scratch, a simple weather app I made months ago. It took longer, broke constantly and at one point I almost gave up but when it finally ran I actually understood what was happening this time. That moment felt different. I closed my laptop, leaned back and just sat there enjoying the silence for once instead of feeling frustrated. If you’re stuck in tutorial hell, rebuild something from memory. It’s not easy but it’s the first time coding has felt real to me.

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HimSAN200@reddit

I'd like to ask how do you study programming without being taught by either a teacher or a pro in a specific language because using YouTube tutorials is kinda confusing and as I try to follow line by line I feel as if I'm regurgitating what I don't comprehend

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AlSweigart@reddit

Hey, quick question because I teach people to code and I want to get people's experience and process: how often do you run programs under a debugger one line at a time? Often? Almost never? Never?

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Repulsive-Hurry8172@reddit

Often. It has been my go to ever since I learned how to use it. It's so much more powerful than a print statement, and is best when integrated with the code editor.

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saucetexican@reddit

How do you use a debugger?

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Repulsive-Hurry8172@reddit

It depends on the language, the framework, use a Docker container etc.

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Responsible-Heat-994@reddit

Well not a lot of people use debuggers these days, especially the new gen devs, they simply copy paste the logs or just the code directly in the gpt.

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light_switchy@reddit

I heard about debuggers as a noob, but used them only rarely for years until I had the opportunity to watch an expert use one -- not to fix a defect, but just to verify her mental model against the program's behavior.

This was really surprising to me at the time, but it was such an effective prophylactic trick that I adopted it and my defect rate dropped immediately.

One of the ways I still continue to improve is by being on the lookout for ways to make code more easily debugged and less prone to error. Today I use debuggers as a matter of course.

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patrickfizban@reddit

I had coded for 3 years as first a hobby then in an effort to land a job and I didn't even realize line by line was an option until I spent some time with a senior dev that helped fill a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Really blew my mind what I was missing.

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deux3xmachina@reddit

I'd be surprised if someone just learning would use a debugger much, if at all. While you can step through line-by-line, if you're still green enough to be trapped in "tutorial hell", I'd expect littering logging/printing calls throughout to be more immediately useful.

Maybe a guided walk through a debugger would be a good exercise, but I'm not sure if any of the devs I work with regularly use a debugger instead of just adding more logging to find the cause of a bug.

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khais@reddit

Hi, Al! Just wanted to say Automate the Boring Stuff helped me level up from an Excel job to a proper programming job six years ago. I owe a lot to you and others like you. Thanks for doing what you do!

While I'm not the OP, Python isn't the primary language I program in, so I still consider myself at Intermediate-to-Beginner despite over 5 years of experience now. I'd say I only jump into line-by-line debugging when I'm running into a really thorny issue and my results aren't what I expect. I'll chuck a breakpoint() into the code around where I think the issue lies and hop into the cli-debugger (pdb) and get to stepping.

TL;DR - Almost never

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Entire-Food8241@reddit

Takes time to change alien language to second nature language

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ImBoing@reddit

People not realizing that this is just an ad for an online casino, is shocking to me. Just check his profile.

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Lucky-Reputation1860@reddit

yes, this is actually the way to go. watching someone drive a car, does not mean you can drive a car as well. you need to get behind the wheels and see for yourself.

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Ronin-s_Spirit@reddit

Did you just now understand you had to do this..?

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cosmicchitony@reddit

That's a huge breakthrough, and the frustration you pushed through is a classic sign of genuine learning. Congratulations on escaping tutorial hell brother that moment of quiet satisfaction is the real reward for building a true understanding, good job.

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floppaheimer@reddit

I just built out a singly linked list class and I feel the same way. The expectation that you're a proficient master by the time you're doing your senior project in school is overblown, but I do think that this experience is had with bigger and cooler shit if you keep learning and building. Keep learning everyday!

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slick_moos@reddit

Qp is q

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pat_trick@reddit

This is why one of the major pieces of guidance given to people who want to learn how to code is to tell them to build something. You can follow tutorials for years, but until you actually try to make it yourself without hand-holding, you're just spinning your wheels.

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