Tutorial Hell: Why I Kept Watching and Never Building

I spent three months watching JavaScript tutorials. I knew the syntax. I could follow along. But when I tried to build something on my own, I froze. My mind went blank. I had no idea where to start.

That was my wake up call. I was stuck in tutorial hell.

What Tutorial Hell Actually Feels Like

It is when you watch hours of coding videos but still cannot build anything without step by step instructions.

You finish one course and jump to another. Your YouTube history is full of coding videos. You feel productive but nothing sticks. When you try to code from scratch, you panic.

The worst part is the confidence drop. You start thinking maybe coding is not for you. You see others building things while you feel stuck watching the same topics again.

How I Got Trapped

It started with a JavaScript crash course. Everything made sense while watching. Then I tried to build a simple to do app and realized I did not know where to begin.

So I searched for a to do app tutorial. Watched it. Copied it. Felt good. Then repeated the same cycle for APIs, authentication, deployment, and everything else.

Months went by. I had built nothing original. Everything came from following a video.

Why Tutorials Stop Working

Tutorials are planned. The instructor already solved the problems. They know what to type and why. They have the structure ready.

But that planning is the real skill. Tutorials skip that part.

When you follow along, you are just typing what someone else figured out. You are not making decisions. You are not solving problems. You are just watching.

A friend once said tutorials are like training wheels. They help you move, but they do not teach balance. When they come off, you fall.

The Moment I Realized I Was Stuck

I applied for a junior developer role. The interviewer asked me to explain how useState works.

I froze. I had used it in many tutorials but never thought about what it was actually doing. I gave a weak answer and it was clear I did not understand the basics.

That hit me hard. I had spent so much time “learning” but I could not explain simple concepts.

What Actually Got Me Out

I stopped tutorials completely for two weeks. No videos. No courses. Just me and the code.

It felt terrible at first. I started a weather app and got stuck right away. Instead of searching for a tutorial, I googled errors, read docs, tried things, and broke things.

It took me four days to build something a tutorial could cover in 30 minutes. But those four days taught me more than the last month of watching videos.

I finally understood that the struggle is the actual learning.

The Rules I Follow Now

One tutorial per concept. Watch once, understand it, move on.

Build right away. Even if it is small and simple.

Do not code along. Watch the tutorial, take notes, then build something similar from memory.

Google before tutorials. Read the docs. Try things first.

Set one weekly project. Even if it is ugly. Even if it is basic. As long as it is mine.

The Hard Truth About Learning

Learning to code means being confused a lot. Tutorials hide that confusion. Real projects do not.

You have to write bad code. You have to debug for hours. You have to google things you feel like you should already know. That is normal.

The discomfort is not failure. It is progress.

What I Wish Someone Told Me Earlier

Stop trying to learn everything before building. You will never feel ready.

Pick a small project and build it without help. It does not matter if it takes a week. You will learn more by struggling through it than watching ten tutorials.

Treat tutorials like reference material, not your main learning method.

Finishing courses is not the goal. Building things is the goal.

Where I Am Now

I still use tutorials sometimes, but now it is different. I watch one to get the idea, then I build something. I check the docs when I get stuck. I solve problems on my own.

Tutorial hell is real, but you can get out. The only way out is by building things on your own. The struggle is where the learning happens.