Youtube or Docs • How Should You Learn Programming?
Like every Zen Z, I depended heavily on Youtube videos while learning the basics of programming. But slowly, I realized that the docs are far better than videos. This story is about this.
Why do we watch videos on programming?
The first question is if docs are better then why do we watch videos? Well, it’s simple, we find it more visually appealing. The YouTuber shows steps and explains them graphically. So naturally, it becomes easily understandable and we tend to watch them more often.
Then why should we watch fewer videos?
If the videos are easily understandable, then why experienced programmers recommend consuming fewer programming videos? Well, personally I think there are two basic reasons.
First of all, if you copy every step of a youtube video for all of your projects, then you’re in “tutorial hell”. Sure you may have understood the steps but because you have copied every step, you don’t know what errors may come if you try to do the step differently. Also, you will not know how to solve the errors that come. So I suggest stepping outside of youtube tutorials and trying to build something on your own. Google is your friend.
The second reason is videos are too time-consuming. For example, let's say, you want to learn how to center a div on screen using Tailwind CSS. Then most likely, the videos will have at least 5 mins of play time, maybe more. The video will have an intro, then YouTuber will tend to describe the problem, then he will write the codes and explain it to you. In there maybe he will spend some time on sponsorship and at last an outro. This is too much. Some YouTubers also set up the project from scratch just so that the viewers can understand it easily.
Absolutely, these efforts are truly helpful to beginner programmers who are just starting out. But for someone who has written the same code hundreds of times but doesn’t care to remember it in his/her brain, he/she will just read the docs or go to stack overflow. Believe me, it takes less than 5 seconds to know how you center a div with Tailwind CSS if you know where to find it instead of 5 mins of a youtube video.
The advantages of reading docs
As you gain experience, you are more likely to read someone else’s code and then write your own code above it. It is just how it works. So every time you see a new thing, you cannot just go to youtube. The likely result will be that no one has made the exact video that you need on that new thing. So instead, what you should do is search it on google and stack overflow. You will surely get the explanation that you need.
And also as you read more and more docs, you develop a habit of reading code. And this will help you a lot in the programming world. As you become more habitual in reading docs, you will find that your brain will ask you to learn new things more often as it is not time-consuming anymore. You’re not watching those 8 hour long videos to master anything. Now what you’re doing is going through their documentation and following their instructions on your use case.
This story is not telling you to stop watching programming videos entirely.
Ok, I think that’s enough for this short story. If you liked it and want to read more of this sort of article, then start following me.
And if you’re able then please give me a tip for my writing. Thank you and take love 💖 from India.
