learn before you build

Published: 4/28/2025

This advice comes up repeatedly when people ask how they should learn to code:

“Just build a project and google stuff.”

It’s as good as telling introverts to “just put yourself out there.”

If you want to learn calculus, you will need to know basic arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, and tons of concepts before you start.

Imagine telling someone who has never learnt math to just solve calculus problems and google things he doesn’t understand. It’s impossible because there’s a gap in his knowledge.

That’s what people are doing when they tell those who have never learnt to code to just build stuff and Google it.

So how do you really learn to code?

Learn the basics

My first programming language is Python. I didn’t really have a choice because this is what they teach in a programming 101 college course.

The instructor taught me variables, functions, for loops, and gave assignments to learn. Just like other students, I hated the assignments and the deadlines. But they helped me get good at the language.

Good that he didn’t tell me to just build something and google it.

Later on, I realised college is not the best place to learn because it’s way too slow and the instructors are too boring. So I turned online.

I’m a more visual person, maybe it’s because I love anime art. I decided to go with frontend.

I learnt HTML/CSS and JavaScript in a week. 1 day for HTML/CSS, 2 days for JavaScript & 4 days for procrastination (probably was playing league of legends).

“But people say it’s impossible to learn that fast.”

The thing is I already knew Python, and I’m good at it. Learning another programming language became very easy. Of course, I can’t become a master in 7 days, but I learnt enough to start building things.

So, learn your first programming language as soon as possible. Don’t learn everything, but learn the basics really well. After that, you can explore freely and build what you’re interested in. Also, don’t jump from one to another, and don’t start with C/C++, unless you love to start with Hardcore mode in every game.

The right way to learn from tutorials

After that, I learnt React, and thought I was ready for a fullstack tutorial. So I looked up on YouTube and found a 14 hours video by Ben Awad. At the time, I knew nothing about backend stuff including Express, Graphql, Postgres, Docker, you name it, so I have no idea what I was doing half of the time. But I deployed my first web app and felt proud.

After I finished the tutorials, I wanted to make it better becasue the UI sucks. So I decided to make it better. The problem is I’m not a designer. So I decided to clone an existing website design (please don’t sue me, Instagram).

That’s when I learnt a ton. I spent almost a month to make it looks identical to Instagram’s homepage. I went from not knowing how to center a div to building responsive layouts with flexbox. After that, I’m confident that I can build any website UI. This project also got me my first internship.

Tutorials are not the devil, watching tutorials without building anything is. During the tutorials, don’t just copy and paste, watch it for a couple of minutes until a feature is completed. Then try to rebuild it yourself. After the tutorial, expand on the website to make it a real project, or use what you learnt to build another project.

If you don’t like tutorials, we have an interactive course that makes learning JavaScript fun and approachable:

​https://animecoders.com​