Tried learning React with just a YouTube playlist, got way more confused than with the docs

Everyone says YouTube tutorials are the best for beginners, but after 3 days of bouncing between videos I couldn't even make a button work. Reading the official React docs straight up taught me more in 2 hours than those 12 videos did, has anyone else had better luck with written stuff over video?

3 comments

3 Comments

troy_price1mo ago

The thing about video tutorials is they make it look easy because they already know what they're doing. They skip over the small details that trip you up, like why a certain bracket goes where or what that one function actually does under the hood. I had the same problem when I tried learning Python from videos, but the official documentation walked me through it step by step. Did you find that the docs also helped you understand the reason behind the code, not just the how? That was the big difference for me.

drew_hart41mo ago

lol yeah docs actually explain the "why" instead of just "copy this magic here

valc911mo ago

I read a post the other day from a guy who was learning JavaScript and he said videos make you feel like you're coding along but when you open a blank file you realize you have no idea what to actually type. That really stuck with me because it's exactly what happened when I tried learning from YouTube. The docs, especially like MDN or the Python docs they mentioned, they break down each step and tell you why a loop works the way it does or why you use a certain data type. Tutorials just skip all that stuff and you end up memorizing steps instead of actually learning the logic. I think that's why people say once you figure out how to read the docs you stop needing tutorials so much.