Stop Writing and Watching Recycled Tutorials
The vast majority of content marketed towards developers is something like “How To {Library/Feature} in {Language}” or “Should you use {Library/Feature} in your next project?” These are mostly worthless. To the beginner, these are useful for a very small amount of time. To the Intermediate, they are a crutch. There are plenty of tutorials out in the ether where the majority of the content is exactly the same as the “Getting Started” section of the official documentation.
There is a current trend of people jumping into web development and software engineering in general, thanks to the very notable income earning potential, and the possibility for a satisfying career without a college degree. This is by all means, a good thing, both for employers and people currently in the field. Competition is usually a good thing.
For example, if you wanted to learn how to make a basic express server in node, you could look at one of the first results I found on google, “Your first Web Server with Node and Express in 5 minutes”. This tutorial starts off with, “I know, I know… Another Node Express tutorial 😑”, because even the author knows this content isn’t really needed. A word count of this tutorial clocks in at ~550 words. The point I’m trying to make isn’t that this tutorial is bad, but that it’s unnecessary rehashing of material that is already out there. If you want to learn how to make a simple express server, why not go to the official express Getting Started page and read the one page example you’ll find there?
const express = require('express')
const app = express()
const port = 3000app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('Hello World!'))app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`))
This is both to the point and accurate, since it comes directly from the creators at ~240 words. There is also the full documentation available for more in-depth explanations if anything is hard to understand. In what ways did this need improvement? If the tutorial had given something more than just the bare minimum, it would have been worth writing, but most of these tutorials do not. There is an obsession with ‘creating content’ regardless of whether or not that content is worth creating. Maybe the culture of wanting to be an “Influencer” is so pervasive that’s its made it’s way into Software Development like it has almost every other industry.
There is plenty of content out that is good for the community at large. It has depth and insight that will be incredibly helpful to the new learner and experienced developer alike. But the vast majority of content is the same recycled content over and over again. The overall quality of content has dropped, and the community is lacking intellectual curiosity and the ability to teach themselves what they need to know. People would rather be spoon-fed basic tutorials because it ‘feels’ like they are learning.
The goal of these tutorials isn’t to further the knowledge of development, it’s only purpose is boost the ego of the author. I would argue that the community as a whole is better than the current bar we’ve decided to accept.
