What One Month of Learning Web Dev Taught Me

Why I stopped learning few years ago

I restarted learning web development this summer to build my dream apps, apps that don't exist but are a must-have for me. I am sick of complex apps that are unusable, shiny apps that I abandon after a few weeks, and apps that are blocked by predatory paywalls. The reason why I stopped learning web dev few years ago was because of my lack of commitment to endure hard things. I realized web dev is a lucrative career path so I tried learning it but when it comes doing the actual thing, my brain just shuts down instantly. But now I’m back learning again, I have to make sure to go all in on this path but the thing is the path is not a flower road.

I completed 77% of The Odin Project Foundations Course, so I’m almost finished except for a few lessons and projects I haven't done yet. Then I’ll proceed to the Fullstack JavaScript course. I spent 3–5 hours a day, although during weeks 3–4 I got lazy and didn’t face my computer lol.

The most important lesson I overlooked

The rawest truth I discovered during the first month is that to understand things deeply and inject concepts deeper into your brain (including web development), you should take things slowly, read documentation slowly, think about problems slowly, and spend time pondering those concepts you didn't understand every time you do a project. Rushing the lessons, especially the foundations, is counterintuitive, as you will only be wasting more time going back to the topics you rushed since you didn't inject them properly into your brain,you only glanced over them, so after a few days, they just fade away.

Mistakes I made

1. Procrastination: On weeks 3–4 there were days where I didn’t code and just played video games because I got lazy. I realized that the reason I got lazy was because I was about to do a landing project on CSS, but because my brain hates exerting energy, it just shut down and avoided the project lol. But now I’ve got to face it anyway.

2. Rushing: Those were the days I treated lessons like a race instead of a skill-building process. I skimmed documentation, watched videos at 2x speed, and jumped from one topic to another thinking I was being “productive.” But the truth is, I was just feeding my ego. I wanted to feel like I was progressing fast, but I wasn’t retaining anything meaningful. I rushed through concepts I didn’t fully get thinking I'd "get it later" and that mindset came back to bite me. I had to rewatch, reread, and redo projects I should've nailed the first time. Rushing made me look busy but left me stuck and dumb. Lesson learned: speed is the enemy of depth.

3. Distractions: Social media, my phone, random YouTube rabbit holes, and even just staring at the wall, those things ate more of my coding time than I’d like to admit. The worst part? Most of the time I wasn’t even enjoying them. I was just escaping. And what fueled the escape was anxiety,doomscrolling dev Twitter or Reddit, seeing posts about how it’s impossible to get a dev job now unless you have 5 years of experience and a CS degree from NASA. That fear paralyzed me. Instead of motivating me to push harder, it made me hesitate. It made me feel like learning web dev was pointless. But now I see it clearly: letting fear dictate your focus is the fastest way to stay broke and stuck.

New Habit to Commit Next Month

1. Listing down and asking stupid questions I didn’t understand on TOP and letting ChatGPT explain them in simple words

2. Don’t accept answers you don’t understand

3. Write down what I learned each day—writing forces clarity

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”

- Richard Feynman

One Sentence Advice to Day-One Me

Never rush learning!