Breaking Gatekeeping: Learning from Sources, Not Influencers

You've probably seen it: a 40-hour Udemy course "Master [technology] in 2025 from Zero to Expert!" with an instructor writing some code that they'll never tell you how to write it yourself, on your own.

Here’s the total point i'm gonna be making for the whole blog post: after a certain point, courses become clutter.
Not because they’re inherently bad, but because they’re someone else’s map of a landscape you need to explore firsthand.

Why over-reliance on courses fails you

1. The “Missing Manual” Problem

   Courses prioritize brevity over depth. They skip “boring” details like:

   • How a framework’s compiler actually works
   • Why this behaves differently in arrow functions (sounds familiar?)
   • Edge cases the instructor never encountered

Example: If you learned React from a tutorial, did they explain How does React know which state to return? ?
Or did they just say, “Memorize the Rules of Hooks™”?

“I thought something was wrong with me for struggling with this… Turns out, I just needed to read MDN’s documentation instead of another tutorial.”

2. You're not getting the full thing

   Courses always give you missing information about the technology

When Should You Watch Tutorials?

Tutorials excel at showing workflows, not wisdom. Use them for:

• Patterns, not facts: How an expert structures a Next.js app.
• Toolchain setups: Configuring Rust with WASM, for example.
• Niche tricks: CSS hacks, Vim shortcuts, etc.

But once you see the shape of the problem, switch to primary sources:

Copy
// Instead of a 2-hour video on useEffect, read:  
// https://react.dev/learn/synchronizing-with-effects  
useEffect(() => {  
  // ...  
}, [dependency]);  

How to Learn from Sources (Without Losing Your Mind)

1. Treat Docs Like a Conversation

   • Skim first: Get the big picture.
   • Search inside : people forget to use Ctrl+F i don't know why
   • ask an LLM. chatgpt, claude, deepseek, all are great options, when you are stuck at something,

2. Build to Break

   Example: Instead of following a “TODO app tutorial,” try writing your own. make mistakes. search. ask LLMs. build on your own to find where things break and how to fix it
   Break it. Then read the docs to fix it.

3. Join Communities, Not Cults

   • Ask “why?”: you can go to Discord or Reddit, they might feel hand-wavy, but try to get the best out of it
   • share your knowledge: while you're learning, your already-known knowledge can be beneficial to someone else

The Middle Path

I’m not saying “never watch courses.” I’m saying: Courses are appetizers, not the meal. after you finish learning. you might get to watch a video or two, those videos will enrich your understanding of course, but NEVER rely on them. peace out ✌