Learning is great, guided learning is great, but self-learning can be even more awesome!
Summary
Don’t stagnate following guide after guide, template project after template project. Copying code from a pre-populated project is no replacement for planning and executing a project manually – get in the trenches!
Seriously, the best learning you can do is have a crack at your own project – it will still most likely involve of a lot of googling solutions and chunks of code lifted from other places but it is a much deeper learning experience than ‘coding by numbers’. The sense of pride and achievement will surpass any high from completing a tutorial, trust me.
Perhaps draw up a list of ideas of what you’d like to design and build. Be as ambitious as you like but before you start, break that end result into required chunks, then break those chunks down even more – break the idea down until you have an idea of the structure, the scope and the scale of the task at hand. Being able to do this is a wonderfully useful skill to have, so practice it. This is something you won’t get from a tutorial!
Remember – be kind to yourself. It will get frustrating from time to time, enjoy the process, welcome to programming 😅