Tutorial hell is a trap most learners fall into at some point. You may know it: a folder of half-finished follow-alongs and the feeling of progress without any actual skill.

The good news is that the way out isn't clever. The bad news is that it's boring. This post lays out why tutorials trap people, a concrete way out, and a one-week experiment you can run starting tomorrow.

What keeps people stuck

Tutorials remove the hardest part of programming: deciding what to do next.

When you follow along, you always know the next step, because someone is telling you. The tutorial author already made every design decision, hit every dead end, and edited the video so it looks smooth. You experience the result of those decisions without experiencing the decision-making.

That's pleasant, and it feels like learning.…