The Ultimate Vide Coding Resources for Self-Taught Developers
Learning to code is like trying to build a spaceship while simultaneously figuring out what a spaceship is. You need good tools, clear instructions, and the understanding that at some point, something will explode. But don't worry—the explosion is how you know you're learning.
Interactive Coding Platforms That Don't Make You Cry
Most coding tutorials assume you already know what a "runtime environment" is, which is like assuming someone knows how to fly a plane because they've sat in one. These platforms don't do that:
Codecademy: They'll hold your hand through the basics without making you feel like a toddler. Their JavaScript course is particularly good if you enjoy the feeling of writing code that almost works, then spending three hours figuring out you forgot a semicolon.
Fun fact: I once completed an entire Python course while waiting for my C++ program to compile. It's still compiling.
freeCodeCamp: Like being thrown into the deep end, but they've attached floaties to your arms and there's a lifeguard. Their HTML/CSS projects will make you question every design decision you've ever made, which is the mark of a true developer.
Video Tutorials For Visual Learners Who Hate Reading Documentation
Some people learn by reading. Others learn by watching someone else make the same mistakes they're about to make, but faster:
The Net Ninja: Explains complex concepts like they're explaining how to make a sandwich. Their React tutorials will make you feel like you understand React, which is more than most React developers can say.
Traversy Media: Brad will teach you full-stack development in a way that makes you believe you could actually build something useful. This feeling lasts until you try to build something useful.
GitHub Repositories That Will Make You Question Your Intelligence
GitHub is where code goes to live, die, and be resurrected by developers who didn't read the documentation:
Free Programming Books: A repository of free programming books that will sit in your bookmarks folder until the heat death of the universe. But it's nice knowing they're there.
Public APIs: A collection of APIs you can use to build projects that seem impressive to non-programmers. Warning: May lead to building yet another weather app.
I once built an app that combined the weather API with a cat fact API. It told you how many cats you'd need to stay warm in the current temperature. The answer was always "more cats."
Stack Overflow: Where Dreams Go To Die And Solutions Are Born
Not a resource per se, but the backbone of all programming. If coding is a religion, Stack Overflow is both the bible and the confessional:
The trick to using Stack Overflow effectively is to phrase your question in a way that doesn't make experienced developers want to mock you. This is impossible, so just embrace the mockery as part of the learning process.
Statistically speaking, the correct solution to your problem has already been posted and marked as a duplicate of a question that doesn't actually address your issue.
Documentation: The Vegetables Of Programming Diet
Nobody wants to read it, everyone knows they should, and it's actually good for you once you develop the taste for it:
MDN Web Docs: For when you need to know exactly why your JavaScript is behaving like it was written by a cat walking across a keyboard. Detailed enough to answer your question and confuse you further at the same time.
DevDocs: All documentation in one place, for when you're tired of having 47 tabs open. Now you'll only need 46 tabs.
Project-Based Learning Resources That Actually Build Useful Skills
Theory is great, but at some point you need to build something that doesn't just print "Hello World":
JavaScript30: 30 days of JavaScript projects that don't require installing 27 dependencies and sacrificing a goat to webpack. You'll actually understand what you're building, which is rare.
The Odin Project: Like being thrown into a coding boot camp, but free and you can cry in the privacy of your own home. Their full-stack path will take you from "what is HTML?" to "I've built a social network and only cried 37 times."
I started The Odin Project in 2019. If all goes according to plan, I should finish sometime in 2047.
Communities That Will Keep You From Giving Up At 2 AM
Programming alone is like trying to assemble IKEA furniture with instructions written in a language you don't speak—possible, but needlessly painful:
Dev.to: A community where developers share articles, experiences, and memes about how JavaScript is simultaneously the best and worst language ever invented.
CodeNewbie: For when you need reassurance that everyone feels like an impostor, even people who've been coding for 20 years. Their podcast is like therapy, but with more discussion about frameworks.
Tools That Make Coding Less Like Banging Rocks Together
The right tools won't make you a better programmer, but they'll make you feel like one, and sometimes that's enough to keep going:
VSCode: An editor that tries to help you write better code through extensions, which you'll spend more time configuring than actually writing code. But those 15 minutes you save each month on typing make it all worthwhile.
Git: Version control that ensures when you inevitably break everything, you can go back to when things sort of worked. Learning Git is like learning a new language where all the verbs are "push," "pull," and "panic."
My Git commit messages gradually devolve from "Implement user authentication system" to "please work" to "I HATE EVERYTHING" over the course of any project.