Be careful with tutorials. They are addictive and distract you from learning new skills. Following instructions is easy.

Tutorials only teach you the basics

Most tutorials will walk you through simple examples only. You will be tempted to search for instructions to build exactly what you need. Keep searching and you risk entering tutorial hell.

You will work through tutorial after tutorial. You will try to deviate from the instructions to achieve exactly what you need. But without the deeper understanding you are just guessing and you will get lost.

Context is important

If you only follow tutorials, you are not developing a deeper understanding of what you are doing. Only if you investigate a subject from various angles will you be able to come up with your own solutions.

A tutorial can give you a quick start and help you familiarize yourself with new technologies. But that is about as far as a tutorial can take you.

Do your own research

To avoid wasting time, make it a rule to pick just one, maybe two tutorials. After that, start with your own research. You will probably find code examples to learn from. Study the documentation to figure out how to implement what you want.

For popular technologies, search for the best books and pick one that has been published recently. Read it. If your technology of choice happens to be an open source project, studying the source code is a great way of becoming an expert.

Consider it an investment

Becoming an expert takes time and learning something new is hard. Be skeptical of learning approaches that feel easy.

You will not regret the hours spent doing your own research. It is an investment that will pay dividends in the future.

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