Stuck in Tutorial Hell? Why You're Avoiding Projects as a Beginner Developer

Building projects is not only the final goal of web development but also an essential part of learning. You must have heard that building projects is the best way to learn web development or programming in general. 

When you build websites or projects, you apply concepts that you learned, understand their real-life applications, and enhance your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

So, if building projects is so important, why do beginner web developers avoid it? Let me tell you there are a few reasons behind it.

First thing, beginners do not feel ready. Beginners start with a first-learning or school mindset. Their main focus is on learning and memorizing the concepts. This is good at the start but becomes problematic when they never grow out of this phase. 

They get overwhelmed by the number of concepts and technologies and want to learn everything before they feel ready. 

They tell themselves, "I'll start building projects after I finish this course or master this new framework," but in reality, they keep jumping from one tutorial or course to another, getting trapped in tutorial hell, always delaying doing projects.

Doing is also different than learning. Building projects is an uncomfortable process. Unlike learning, where you have tutorials, clear steps, and instructions to follow, building projects requires you to step into the unknown. 

You're on your own, figuring things out as you go, which can feel daunting and overwhelming. This makes creating projects hard, complex, and often frustrating, and our brain hates this. 

You feel the fear of failure, and this feeling makes the brain take an easy and familiar route, your comfort zone, which is doing tutorials or courses.

The above reasons are also common, but in my opinion, the most important is that Beginners do not know how to begin. They do not know the first step of building projects. 

Building projects is not just writing code but is also a process. Tutorials and courses are good at teaching you coding but fail at teaching you a process that can help you get started. 

This creates a gap between learning and doing. Yet, many beginners try to fill this gap by consuming even more tutorials, searching for that one magical tip or hint that will finally get them started. 

In reality, this approach only keeps them stuck in learning, trapping them in Tutorial Hell.

In my opinion, most beginners struggle with these common problems. They avoid discomfort, frustration, and struggles by avoiding doing projects, but you need to understand that doing projects is the fastest way to learn and become a programmer.

So, what is the solution? It is simply Taking Action. You will never feel ready no matter how much you learn, there will always be a fear of failure. 

You will be uncomfortable and uncertain. But that's how growth works. Despite your fear and discomfort, you need to take Action and grow out of your comfort zone.

Start small. Begin by building just one section of your website or implementing a single feature. Do not worry about how crappy or useless it looks. 

You can increase the complexity and scale of your projects as you build and learn more. Remember, there is no need to rush; take time, start small, and keep on compounding it over time.