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Got stuck on a loop for 3 hours at a library workshop in Denver, and now I'm team 'learn by building projects' over just doing tutorials.
The instructor said 'just type it exactly like the video' but my code kept crashing until I messed with the logic myself, so should beginners focus more on making their own broken stuff to fix or stick to copying working examples to start?
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lewis.mila1mo ago
Oh MAN, three hours is rough but honestly that's how it goes sometimes. I've had days where something that should take 20 minutes eats my whole afternoon because I trusted the step-by-step instead of trusting my gut. @foster.jordan hit it right - copying is just the start, but breaking stuff teaches you the real ropes. Like when I followed a video for a simple python script and it worked fine until I changed one variable name, then I had to dig through every line to figure out why. That pain is where the actual learning lives. Keep breaking your own stuff, you'll thank yourself later.
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foster.jordan2mo ago
That sounds so frustrating, three hours is brutal. Honestly, copying code without understanding it is like following a recipe without knowing what the ingredients do. You might get a cake, but you won't know how to fix it if something goes wrong. Breaking your own stuff and fixing it is where the real learning happens. The struggle to make it work teaches you way more than a perfect copy ever could. Tutorials are a starting point, but building your own broken project is the next step.
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