Why I Stopped Watching YouTube Tutorials
Tags: webdev, beginners, learning, junior
Published: 2019-04-19 03:17:11

---
title: Why I Stopped Watching YouTube Tutorials
published: true
description: A letter to convince you to give docs a try!
tags: #webdev, #beginner, #learning, #junior
cover_image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1456406644174-8ddd4cd52a06?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1348&q=80
---

*TLDR: It's not that long but OK. I got tired of outdated information. Also, searching through docs is faster for me than watching a video.*

#Intro
I've been writing code for 8 years now. A solid 6 out of those 8 years, my primary form of learning anything new was YouTube tutorials. If there wasn't a tutorial on YouTube for a thing, I didn't learn it. I got my start making Minecraft mods with Java, video games with C# and Unity, iOS apps with Objective-C (Before Swift was released), Android apps with Java, and finally static websites. I've *done* a lot of things but the problem is I didn't actually **learn** anything. I just wasted a lot of time copying the code line for line from some random YouTube video.

#What's the problem?
How do I determine whether something was a good use of my "learning" time or not? Back then, I would say that whenever I am "making" something, that is a productive use of time spent learning. I soon found out I was very wrong. I would copy and paste the code, then have no idea that the content creator was using an out of date method. Maybe the content creator didn't really explain the concept well enough. Worst of all, maybe the content creator was straight up wrong! What if I need to go back to reference something? What is faster, typing a keyword into the search bar of the documentation, or scrubbing through a 2-year-old YouTube video? Let's move on.

#The realization
So there I am, bored out of my MIND with programming. I start to think to myself, "Maybe I am not cut out to be a developer. I should change degrees now while it's still early". I quickly realized that I am not bored with programming. I am bored with making boring static websites. I want to learn the *epic voice* BACK-END!!

#The Journey
I know JavaScript, C#, Java, and Python. These are the well-known options for back-end development. I gave Python a go first, with Flask. I learned I hated everything about Flask. Django was a LOT more enjoyable but I still wanted something even better. I was quickly told that if I wanted to go into "enterprise-level" websites I need to learn ASP.NET with C#. So I did, the documentation and learning resources were pretty trash (for ASP.NET). I am reading through docs that have a lot of copying and pasting, which annoyed me. I know JavaScript is what the "hip kids" are using. If you read my last post you will know that I ABSOLUTELY 
HATE... Love checking out the new tech. 

"Grant, you shouldn't just hop on bandwagons. Learn tech that you believe in!"

I KNOW! It's just new tech is so cool and shiny! I install NPM *(that looks odd in all caps)* and "npm i express" and off I go! The docs, \**sniff*\* beautiful. They are easy to use when I just need something to work. The docs also provide a deeper level of explanation when I want to understand something. The community of JavaScript Back-end developers is very active online. I love everything about it and NPM. Finally, my first success with using docs as my primary source of learning.

#Conclusion
What did I learn and what do I want to tell you? I learned that docs are not any more help than a video if they are not made well. Two big requirements that I want from docs is a "getting started" section, a deeper explanation of what is happening, and what are the best practices. To the Developer that is just like me... Just give it a shot. You might end up liking it at the end! I hope I convinced y'all to try something new. Y'all take it easy out there! :D