Discussion on: Getting Out of Tutorial Hell

I never find tutorial very useful. Most of the time they explain you a bunch of code I'll copy paste somewhere, and then I forget about it. It's a very inefficient way to learn something, in my opinion.

The other problem: it's difficult to know if a tutorial is high quality on Internet. It could be a bunch of crap; difficult to know for a beginner.

I've began to learn programming languages with books, with a clear intent and goal in mind. I was typing all the code from the book, to get the syntax. When I was feeling ready, I began the project I had in mind and try to solve the problems along the way. That's the key part: we are problem solvers. Following tutorial won't let you solve any problems.

If we look at the cognitive studies about learning, we need to be as active as possible to lean something. Here are some examples:

• Going through exercises.
• Revisiting the knowledge acquired at regular interval, and each time try to recall from memory what was learned without looking at anything, only using our memory and previous understanding.
• Inventing our own questions or exercises from the subject studied.

All of that ask for more work than tutorials. That's why it works. I see that as a challenge, as a game, more than a chore. It's great to have these "aha" moment when you finally remember or understand something.

On top of that, there is something called "illusion of competence". When I read something passively, I have the impress I understand it most of the time; it's wrong. Trying to recall it later will prove it. We need to be aware of our limitations, accept them, and work with them.

The best method against the illusion of competence: teaching. If you can't explain something to somebody, it might be because you don't understand it really. It can be explaining something to somebody directly, or to an audience via a blog post for example.