Learning by building is dramatically more effective than learning by consuming tutorials, even if it feels slower

I’ve started noticing that you learn much more when you actually build something than when you spend hours watching tutorials.

Tutorials are great for getting started, but I think people massively overestimate how much they actually learn from watching them.

When you build something yourself, you hit bugs, make wrong assumptions, and have to figure out why your code isn't working. That's where the real learning happens. It's slower, more frustrating, and often feels like you're making less progress but that struggle is exactly what makes the knowledge stick.

I've forgotten countless tutorial videos. I rarely forget the problems I had to solve myself.

I'm not saying tutorials are useless. They're excellent for introducing concepts. I just don't think they should be the main way people learn if the goal is long-term understanding.