There's a significant difference between watching tutorials and actually building something. While tutorials are great starting points, the real learning happens when you open your code editor and start typing.
Learning Philosophy
The best way to learn is by doing - start small, but start today.
I've discovered that the best way to learn any new technology is to build something from scratch with it. Yes, from scratch.
While using templates and starters might seem faster, building from the ground up forces you to understand every piece of the puzzle.
Here's my approach:
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Project-Based Learning:
I learn new tech by building projects around it, like using Drizzle ORM in a todo app or exploring Hono.js and Cloudflare Workers through serverless APIs. -
Smart Use of AI:
I use tools like ChatGPT and Claude as learning aids to understand concepts, not just copy answers. For me, experimenting and building is key to grasping the material.
Freelancing
Learning by doing has helped me grow as a developer. I started with small AI apps, which were fun and easy to build using GPT wrappers. But I wanted a bigger challenge, so I decided to create a full social media web app — a clone of Meta’s Threads.
Through this project, I learned:
- How to build clean, user-friendly UI
- Using Prisma ORM for Database Queries
- SQL for working with databases
- tRPC for type-safe APIs
- TypeScript best practices for writing maintainable code
And you know what’s the fun part? I didn’t just learn from this project - I also got a freelancing opportunity. I used a similar tech stack to build an entire product end-to-end for a client.
Here’s a quick look at the project:
I'm not allowed to share other images as they are still in development and not yet publicly accessible.
Wrapping Up
Getting paid to do what you love is one of the best things that can happen to you.
And if you're a developer reading this, trust me, every line of code you write and every debugging session helps you grow. So, keep building cool stuff and learning along the way.