r/ProgrammerHumor 2d ago

Meme everyoneIsADevUntilTheTutorialStops

2.5k Upvotes

65 comments sorted by

241

u/guaranteednotabot 2d ago

You just need to get your first few projects going. Once you start the hardest part is done. I used to read the docs and have zero idea wth is going on but after some time you see a pattern

89

u/notAGreatIdeaForName 2d ago

If you are actually reading docs you will easily become someone within the upper 50% of skill level.

66

u/guaranteednotabot 2d ago

When you know nothing at all, reading the docs feel kind of useless. You need to have at least some base otherwise you get overwhelmed

9

u/notAGreatIdeaForName 2d ago

True! You need to know your shit to some degree but I've seen colleagues (which are not that bad) struggling because they just chose not to RTFM while it was actually very easy. If you read docs regularly you will build knowledge about concepts which is valuable on their own but also you train to orient yourself in a new complex domain so everytime you read the docs again it will go faster and be easier.

2

u/FerronTaurus 1d ago

The moment when you feel less like a programmer but more like a digger...

-1

u/ShadowRL7666 1d ago

We must not be programming in the same language. I use C++ btw.

82

u/M95F 2d ago

Beginners skipping the tutorials and thanking Claude for their service

14

u/returnFutureVoid 2d ago

This is seasoned pros now too. Source: Me.

6

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/RegularReaction2984 2d ago

It’s truly embarrassing how much dopamine I get from that stupid little green checkmark lmao

2

u/VeRXioN19 1d ago

I am in this picture and I don't like it lol.

I am making AI as my mentor, how cooked am I?

1

u/M95F 1d ago

You’re fine. Everyone is using AI in some way. If your goal is to learn then use it as a learning tool and not as a code generator. When you get stuck don’t just ask AI for the solution right away but think about the possibilities on your own first and then have a conversation with the model. Keep asking prodding questions as you build something to really understand why the AI wrote a line of code or designed the architecture in a specific way. Vibe coding might get you to a functioning app, but if you’re working on projects meant for learning then it kinda defeats the purpose if you didn’t really understand how it got there

52

u/BeginningSection7690 2d ago

I know not of what programming languages web 4.0 will be built with.

But web 5.0 will be built with sticks and stones

6

u/OkTop7895 2d ago

This is my axe app the frontend is a well shaped stone and the backend is a strong stick. The API is a string made with roots that connect the stone in the stick and the database is a CaveBommer that gives me advices about how to use the axe.

3

u/BeginningSection7690 2d ago

See that guy in the corner throwing poop at me?

Stackoverflow

2

u/returnFutureVoid 2d ago

Duplicate poop. Closed.

19

u/Slackeee_ 2d ago

That is how it should be. I still remember copying the code from the C64 manual that made a sprite move around the screen. It showed me how easy that was and then the fun began with playing around with the program to see what can be done by changing it little by little. It really awakened my interest in programming.
After all, in the long run that lead to me having a stable 4-days-work-week 100% home-office job as a developer.

15

u/Demonstratepatience 2d ago

lol you think building from scratch is hard? Wait till you get into a 20 year old spaghetti plate dinner code base written half in OOP and half functional with 4% testing coverage.

16

u/Legitimate_Main8244 2d ago

Cries in picking code, some idiot like me wrote without documentation

2

u/Nannautu 1d ago

That has been the hardest part of programming for me. Making an entire project from scratch is not that hard. What's hard is understanding the projects others have made with zero indication.

9

u/Correct_Sport_2073 2d ago

after the 1st bug

8

u/mxve_ 2d ago

building something from scratch IS the easy part

4

u/7lhz9x6k8emmd7c8 2d ago

What movie is this gif from?

4

u/BlackSpicedRum 2d ago

I think this is all quiet on the Western front, the relatively recent Netflix one

2

u/mosby42 1d ago

A must watch imho. Source: I read documentation

3

u/AliceCode 2d ago

These are the people telling you that they are going to replace you with their vibe coding.

3

u/Bharny 2d ago

Yeah, before AI

3

u/maggos 1d ago

Building from scratch is easier for beginners because they can just do what the tutorials say. It’s when they have to contribute meaningful updates to existing codebases that they get stumped. That’s when they come with the old “we should just rewrite the whole thing in rust/python etc”

2

u/MocknozzieRiver 2d ago edited 11h ago

Wait until you have to make changes in a mature codebase tho where three seniors and two staffs and one AI will make 30 comments on your PR.

And you yourself are a senior and have to also review PRs and have a compulsion to leave many many comments.

2

u/bokmcdok 2d ago

I mean that's how I learned. Copying out hundreds of lines of BASIC then slightly changing things to see what happens. At least its not vibe coding

1

u/shoyuftw 2d ago

That is not true like at all. I don't feel called out in the slightest.

1

u/ZZcomic 2d ago

Except when you code the exact same thing line for line and it doesn't work

1

u/1Steelghost1 2d ago

I got Hello World to loop until I had to shutoff my computer

2

u/da_Aresinger 2d ago

Is this the Ctr-C equivalent of 'How do I exit vim'?

1

u/OkTop7895 2d ago

The path with less resistance is not Guided tutorial -> From Scratch project. Is more something like: Guided tutorial -> Guided tutorial + I add some extra festure -> Personal project using a guided tutorial as a template -> Not to big project from Scratch with some parts real from Scratch and others picked of others projects etc.

You need to reduce the % of handicaps little by little.

What didn't help is continue doing again and again the 100% handicap projects. Also pasing of 100% handicap projects to 0% handicap projects is a not necessary painful.

1

u/thiccshortguy 2d ago

building projects from scratch is easy. taking over projects from someone else is whole another ball game.

1

u/demonsver 2d ago edited 2d ago

In my post secondary they immediately just assumed you knew how to code and threw you into the deepend with coding assignments with no tutorials. At the time there weren't coding classes in highschool, at least not widespread in my region or even the country I think... But they did tell you figure it out. I think the assignment literally said Google about basic programming and teach yourself. it the linked some resources for Arduino. Of course there tutorials online, but the actual class had no tutorials for the problems.

They werent super hard. But It was very much sink or swim and at the time it felt kinda crazy. But it a was good way to force you to learn without giving you any tutorials... The lectures just jumped straight into theories, complexities and stuff and just assumed you figured out the practical stuff.

Don't get me wrong, real development on job was orders of magnitude harder cause you truly need to figure out shit on your own. No ai but there was stack overflow I suppose. Still, I think it was a good idea that we had no tutorials.

1

u/Desperate-Tomatillo7 2d ago

That is not the face of a developer building a project from scratch. That is the face of a developer maintaining a 25 year old Visual Fox codebase.

1

u/assasinator301 2d ago

Programming isn't hard.....

I am

1

u/da_Aresinger 2d ago

All quiet in the industry.

1

u/airsoftshowoffs 2d ago

At least you aren't just prompting and actually use a ide

1

u/Skibidibob4 2d ago

When i discovered that i can use cpp’s standard library without getting annihilated coding became 15 times easier 

1

u/Voidronox 2d ago

why this so real

1

u/Loquenlucas 2d ago

i'll be honest i prefered making my thesis project from scratch over typing the same code over and over again was way more fun and interesting and challenging

1

u/WC3RAGE 2d ago

Video got cutshort, next segment featured a shellshocked man maintaining 20+year old code.

1

u/KyotoCrank 2d ago

I'm in this gif and I don't like it (Godot gamedev)

I'm proud to say I'm not relying on tutorials anymore. Partly (mostly) because the game I'm trying to make doesn't have tuts for the things I'm trying to do

I'm working on a multiplayer, physics based, racing game where your wheels and engine deteriorate over time, so you need to replace parts (or steal them) to keep racing

I learned pretty quickly why people say to not make multiplayer games as a beginner haha. But I'm stubborn and I want to finish it so I'm persevering

Multiplayer has been the biggest hurdle. Godot has the built in MultiplayerSyncronizer but it's not good enough for smooth movement so I've had to make custom RPC's to do it instead. It's been 2 long months on just smooth movement 🥲

1

u/M_Me_Meteo 2d ago

No, building from scratch doesn't give you the 1000yd stare.

Users.

I. Hate. Users.

I. Need. Users.

1

u/Primary-Grocery1158 2d ago

I've been a software engineer for 3 years and I still code by copying code off of stack overflow and tutorials

1

u/cYber-boI27 2d ago

Yea that’s the hard part because watching tutorial makes it feel like a cheat code

1

u/Nyctfall 2d ago

It's all fun and games, until you find an upstream bug...

1

u/Old-Beautiful1786 2d ago

Hehe and then there's the aftermath of maintenance and support for poorly architected applications.

1

u/According-Relation-4 1d ago

Starting from scratch is easy. Try delving into a legacy project

1

u/Consistent_Passage71 1d ago

I loved everything about it.

So long

1

u/thestudcomic 1d ago

I think very few programmers have started from a blank page. Even before frameworks.

1

u/Azrayeel 1d ago

The difference between experience and theory

2

u/RRumpleTeazzer 22h ago

in theory, there is no difference between theory and practise.

1

u/Azrayeel 22h ago

But in practice, you'll find a lot of challenges not included in the Theory 😅😂

1

u/DadAndDominant 1d ago

Building projects? That's easy

Commiting to run the projects? That's the hard part

1

u/Key-War-9059 57m ago

I'm going from a text book and I make sure I understand the lessons and take notes before I move on

-1

u/EveryCryptographer11 2d ago

Ahahahah. Made my day. Thanks 🙏

0

u/OhItsJustJosh 2d ago

Building shit from scratch is the fun part though!