Unpopular opinion: I think the 'build a project first' advice for new coders is wrong

I spent 6 months trying to make a simple weather app in Python and just felt lost the whole time. What tipped me off was a talk by a teacher from my local library's coding class, who said starting with drills on sites like freeCodeCamp builds the muscle memory you need. Now I'm just doing their basic JavaScript course and it finally feels like I'm learning. Has anyone else found project-based learning too hard at the very start?

4 comments

4 Comments

owens.anthony1mo ago

Totally get where you're coming from.

price.ben1mo ago

@nancyjones sounds like your cat had a better dev career than that weather app of mine. "Silly thing I wanted to fix" hits different when you're staring at a broken API key for the 50th time. Honestly, drills feel like playing scales on a guitar - boring but you stop sounding like garbage after a week. Plus, freeCodeCamp's JavaScript course made me realize I was trying to build a house without knowing how to hold a hammer.

nancyjones1mo ago

Honestly, I get that. My first "project" was trying to build a website for my business and it looked like a toddler did it. @nancyg14 has a point about starting with something simple you actually care about.

nancyg141mo ago

That "muscle memory" point makes sense, but for me, a small project gave the drills some real meaning. I started with a basic HTML page for my cat, then slowly added CSS to style it. The freeCodeCamp lessons stuck better because I had a real, silly thing I wanted to fix or improve. Maybe the type of first project matters a lot?