Overheard a guy at the library say 'just copy the code' and it made me realize something

I was sitting in the library last Tuesday working on a freeCodeCamp project, and this guy behind me told his friend to just copy code from Stack Overflow and change the variable names. It got me thinking about how many beginners probably do that without actually learning anything. I spent my first 3 months doing the same thing, copying code blocks for my JavaScript projects and feeling smart. But last week I tried to build a simple to-do app from scratch and completely blanked on how to structure it. Now I make myself type every line out and Google just the concepts, not the full solution. Has anyone else hit that wall where you realize you were just copy-pasting your way through tutorials?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennifer_mitchell5315h ago

Wait, did that typo break your whole app or just one feature?

andrewh433d ago

Oh man, this hits way too close to home. I spent like two months "building" a weather app by copying chunks from a YouTube tutorial and changing the color scheme. Then when I tried to add a simple feature on my own, my code just fell apart completely. I remember staring at my screen for 45 minutes trying to figure out why my event listener wasn't firing, only to realize I'd copied a typo from someone else's code. It's embarrassing but I honestly learned way more from breaking stuff than I ever did from copying working code.

perry.karen3d ago

Honestly? I used to think breaking stuff was a waste of time, but your story really turned that around for me. Isn't it funny how the mistakes stick with you way longer than the easy wins?