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Talked to a bootcamp grad who couldn't explain a for loop
We were pair programming on a basic React app and he kept copying code from Stack Overflow without knowing why. It made me realize that learning to read documentation is way more important than just finishing tutorials. Anyone else feel like they wasted time on courses that didn't teach real problem solving?
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quinncarr1d ago
Read the actual docs before you copy a single line of code ever.
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the_claire1d ago
Haha yeah I've been there and it's honestly painful to watch. @quinncarr is spot on about reading docs first, but I'd add that you gotta break stuff on purpose too. Spend an hour just changing values in the docs example and see what breaks. That's how you actually learn what each piece does instead of just copying. Too many people race through bootcamps thinking they'll figure out the hard stuff later, but they never do. Tutorials teach you to follow steps, not to troubleshoot when step 4 gives you a random error. If I'm pair programming with someone who can't explain why they used .map instead of .forEach, I slow way down and make them walk through the logic line by line. It's awkward at first but it forces real learning.
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ninaowens1d ago
break stuff on purpose" is the realest thing in this whole thread. I tell newbies to go mess up the CSS on a working site and see what happens when they delete a closing div. That panic when the layout explodes is how you actually learn what each part does. Tutorials handhold you into thinking you know things, but breaking it yourself proves whether you really get it or not.
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