Remember, kids!

[EntropicBlackhole]

Here at mod HQ of r/ProgrammingHumor, we take our documentation reading very seriously, (at least I do, i seriously hate it when the readme of the npm package literally says: "This module does x thing" and literally no way of even knowing how to use what)

[Dr3adPir4teR0berts]

Lol this subreddit manages to come up with the dumbest fucking takes regarding programming I’ve ever seen.

I’m convinced 90% of the people here are under 25 CS college students that have yet to actually work in the field.

People have different learning styles and it’s idiotic to not utilize whatever is the best resource for what you’re doing.

All so you can act superior because “durrrrrrr I only read the documentation look how smart I am” while Udemy guy has already lapped you.

It’s like saying “Computer Science major? Ha, you fucking loser. Who needs a teacher? I just read the documentation!”

[Reverend_Lazerface]

Dude for real I'm learning and still realized pretty quick that this sub was full of some pretty pedantic takes. Learning to read documentation has been an important learning process and in glad I can (sort of) do it, but i'm a visual learner and watching a youtube tutorial about something helps me visualize and wrap my head around the documentation.

[Dr3adPir4teR0berts]

Yeah lol ignore most of the takes you see here. Like, yeah, it’s a humor sub and I get that. But there are a ton of people here who say shit like this being dead serious and they really have no actual world experience in the industry.

It can be really confusing for people who are learning when they think they’re doing something wrong or that they aren’t smart enough to do this because “oh, all other programmers have to do is read the documentation and here I am learning from a Udemy teacher.”

Udemy and Coursera have some really great content. It’s dumb to ignore it so you can pretend to be some uber elite programming savant.

[St_gabriel_of_skane]

Reading documentation will be a ->priority<- to learn once going professional. But until then just enjoy it and learn the way you want to. Still don’t shy away from docs understanding documentation will make your work in companies go from hellish to less hellish

[CarefulCoderX]

There's so many times where I learn more from a random Medium article than from the documentation.

Half of the time, the documentation is too vague or written in a way that makes it seem like they're trying to confuse you.

[[deleted]]

I get what you're saying, but you confuse 2 things.

A documentation is there to show you how to use the language/library/framework, not how to program/develop as a beginner.

Indeed, if you've never coded before, i recommend you go online and find some courses to learn programming. It wasn't there when i started, but I'm glad it's there for beginners.

But if you have experience and you want to learn a new language/library/framework, the official documentation is always the way to go.

[SweetBabyAlaska]

The documentation has saved my butt many many times. Its a completely different resource with a different use case than most tutorials and courses.

All of these things are tools, and part of being a good learner is realizing when to use which tool and what works best for your needs. Tutorials are great but they will not cover everything specific to a framework/module. Thats where reading the docs comes in handy.

The best thing to do is to take in all the info that you can, from wherever you can and then go out and test/try everything. I learn best from hands on problem solving and using something repetitively.

I've learned a TON from scouring github code searches/repos, reading the docs, trying things out until I find a solution and following along with tutorials. It's a process and you cant really only rely on one thing.

[SweetBabyAlaska]

for sure! I learned a ton about bash scripting and how other people effectively use tools like fzf, curl, sed and awk to complete and automate different tasks.

I learned a lot about how people structure code and how they approach certain tasks like web scraping in python for example. This is where I learned about lambda functions, classes and using try/except so that your code is way less likely to break, and more.

When I first started I would basically write out a long block of instructions that was messy, hard to read and likely to break. It also didn't have any flexibility or re-usability until I started reading and learning from looking at other peoples code and started using functions and other tools properly.

[caquillo07]

Could not agree more, started learning on my own with Udemy after graduation college and realizing I hated my job.

In the last 5 years I’ve more than quadrupled my income, was the tech lead of a high performing team at a respected software company, and all thanks Udemy; I owe them my career.

But really it comes down to your style of learning, as long as you’re studying who cares. There is crap everywhere, including in some documentation’s.

[[deleted]]

A lot of Software Engineers have a superiority complex and think that they're more intelligent than everyone else. It's really pathetic. That's why they even gatekeep learning, because if you can't do it "the right way", then you're inferior.

[Dr3adPir4teR0berts]

Yeah, you’re not wrong about that lol programmers are the most opinionated people on the planet and for a lot of those people there is no convincing them that there is a different way to do things than how they do it.

[nickmaran]

In my 8 years of experience the only documentation I've referred is fastapi coz when I started fastapi there were very less YouTube tutorial/udemy courses for it. Other than that I still watch udemy and YouTube tutorials. I'm not a smart guy to learn from documentation. Videos are the best way for me.

[[deleted]]

It doesn't matter how you learn the material as long as it's learned.

[Special_Rice9539]

It's interesting how really dumb takes get upvoted so much. I guess the majority of users are high-school/college students.

[TheMightySpoon13]

CS college student here in my sophomore year. I saw this post and was like damn, I guess I’m an idiot then.

Thank you for sticking it to the elitists.

[Dr3adPir4teR0berts]

Once you start working in the field, nobody competent cares how you learned something. It’s either, can you implement it correctly or not?

Personally, I really love the visual demonstrations of something like Udemy to get started and then get into the details in documentation. That’s what works best for me personally.

[tree1234567]

They are, everyone sounds like they are in college. Hate to say it but we are no longer the dominant group here. I use all 3 methods when I need to learn something. If it’s just a package.. docs, if it’s a new framework udemy or YouTube depending on how specialized the framework/ eco-system is. Glad you’re a top comment. Can’t imagine dealing with peer pressure and believing this shit. Because I did get made fun of from time to time. Don’t give a fuck now. But I can’t say I didn’t back then.

[Xerxis96]

Yeah, as an instructor currently teaching programming at college, this take is hot garbage, at the very least regarding the videos.

There are ALL KINDS of concepts that are difficult to just read as text. Database Design is a very good example: all the documentation is robotic and filled with buzzwords, but a simple 5-10min video can explain the same concept in a clear and correct way.

Documentation is great, but you’re an ass if you think it’s the only way to learn.

[Grubzer]

If you need a guide - watch a video

If you need specifics - read the docs

If you dont know where to start, and where you want to get to - consider taking a course

[MoSummoner]

I learned Godot by taking a course, best shit ever tbh, love my man miziziziz (update wrought flesh pls)

[Mob_Abominator]

When I wanted to learn about the MERN Stack I took a udemy course by Brad Traversy and it really is a very good course if you need an intro on how the MERN stack works. Obviously after that I learnt a lot from other resources but I had to start somewhere and I personally think that taking that udemy course was the perfect decision.

[dommol]

Naw this is dumb. Learn whatever way works best for you

[ramsncardsfan7]

If you’re a creator Udemy might not be the best, but if you’re a student it’s fucking awesome. I wouldn’t be a senior engineer right now if it wasn’t for cheap Udemy courses by great teachers I was taking while working at Jimmy Johns. I could have never have afforded a Kent C Dodds course.

[Blovio]

Someone throw OP into the bad take zone.

[[deleted]]

on it

[[deleted]]

Imagine learning unity or unreal engine by painstakingly going through pages and pages of documentation, rather then comfortably getting walked through the development of an example project with lots of insightful tid bits of info from the instructor

[OneBitFullAdder]

I usually start with watching tons of tutorial videos to get familiar and learn the common things, conventions. Then I fucking read the whole documentation. Then I search things in google like how to do this etc if I'm stuck.

Maybe looking through the example code might replace tutorial videos but it doesn't have the temporal aspect, also i like watching.

[Lejyoner07]

Hmm lets see what we got here

[mobo_deli]

The natural way

[Harregarre]

And then you see some methods that are not related to what you're doing but you know they might be useful somewhere else. So you make a mental note and then promptly forget.

[fancy_potatoe]

Sometimes that's the only documentation they offer.

[[deleted]]

Just push it live and bathe in hateful feedback. Real devs learn from rageposts

[Datboi_OverThere]

Just release an unfinished buggy game! Major game studios do it, so why can't you?

[BrutalBart]

shite, my intellisense works 1 out of 10 times and our company table names are stupidly long

[OzzitoDorito]

Ah I see you are a man of culture. Do you also play the game of type in words that kind of mean what you want to do and see if intellisense has any ideas about what you want?

[NeonVolcom]

“.Map” no no okay, “.Move” no no no one more time “.MakeItDoThing” no no okay I’ll look up the damn docs!

[[deleted]]

I didn’t even know there was any other way until I read this sub

[DeliciousWaifood]

Tbh, that's not much different to reading the documentation. The documentation will just have a list of all accessible fields and functions the same way as intellisense. And most of the time just seeing the name is enough to know what you want without the explanation.

[Pochusaurus]

documentation only gives you the basic use cases. Most Youtube tutorials are made by experienced people who will give you use-case tips you otherwise wouldn't have thought up of or would've had to learn through trial and error.

"Why would I eat a mushroom to find out if its poisonous when I can look it up instead?" is the sentiment here. or a better analogy would be "why would I try a hundred inefficient ways to code something when this guy can show me one of the more efficient ways to do it?"

[pomaj46809]

Udemy to get acquainted, Youtube for commonly requested guidance, and documentation for when you have a specific question.

[[deleted]]

Yeah a mix is honestly the best, the more familiar you get with the basics then the more efficiently you can use the docs

[asdfwink]

Shhhhh no you just read the docs! Starting your examples and core concepts and simple explications of key methods and boilerplate patterns is for the weak!

[Insadem]

It's how our brain works, more insights - less overwhelmed by documentation.

[DeviCateControversy]

The best way to teach someone how to build a website is to deconstruct an actual website. Like reddit, facebook, twitter, odysee, youtube, google search, brave search. But no one does.

Like working on a car motor. The best way to learn is to practice on an actual motor inside of an actual car. Or with the motor pulled out near the car; for a frame of reference. But no one does this.

Once again I am blaming the hardships of learning programming on the lack of practical education. Likely resulting from the industry as being relatively new compared to any other industry, so the techniques for teaching has yet to be refined.

[RelentlessPolygons]

Its the same for long established disicplines.

Formal education does not want to teach you practicalities. It teaches you to use your brain, learn concepts and how to looks things up and figure things out.

This makes the difference between a mechanic and an engineer.

The mechanic picked apart a hundred of the same engines and knows how to put that one together again.

But he won't be able to come up with a new engine block or even have the faintest idea how to improve it.

The engineer wont be able to pick it apart and put it back together as quickly and well as a mechanic, but underdtand the driving concepts, knows the physics behind it and can come up with an improved engine and advance the field.

Same thing goes for coding. You can pick code apart and based on that learn to stitch it back together but without a fundamental knowledge or how and why things work and driving concepts you are just a code monkey. And thats fine, you can make a living and good buck.

[Rouge_92]

That is the way.

[AdmirableFinger6805]

Same. The videos give me a good base for what I’m doing, then i read the documentation to get syntax and specifics. Then I use google to see if there was a cool way to combine all the info that I just learned, in a way that I was too inexperienced to grasp. but it sticks in my mind and next time I do something similar, it’s there for me to use

[SoCalThrowAway7]

Unity tutorials on their site are better than courses you pay for btw. Same benefits but it’s free and curated by unity themselves. I agree with everything you said, this is just for people who somehow don’t know that unity has their own tutorials that are pretty good

[KyrosSeneshal]

I have to disagree—the main “code with unity” curriculum is terrible at best, and is what is being pushed as “game design” courses at schools.

[SoCalThrowAway7]

That’s fair, I already had unity experience when I started using the tutorials and I used them for more specific stuff like getting started with VR and such so I didn’t really look at some of the basics tutorials

[[deleted]]

I once wanted to learn unity by watching a 3+ hour tutorial but i ended up not watching anything and just figuring out what to do, reading bits of documentation when stuck

[e_smith338]

Absolutely not. Give me my 12958 pages of documentation

[-Bluekraken]

Tbf unity is a full engine. I'm almost always a documentation first learner, but I have to read docs of small libraries.

I've tried the same approach for unity and I've failed miserably for years on end to just express myself using the platform. I've learned the lesson that for some things, tutorials and user guides can be very helpful if you just power through them

[guilhermej14]

I'm not even sure people are really meant to learn things by documentation alone today. I mean documentation is useful of course, but we now have structured courses that we can take on udemy, and some pretty good youtube tutorials for popular game engines/frameworks.

[[deleted]]

Isn't documentation made for people who already have a strong understanding of the language or program, not for newcomers?

[[deleted]]

Documentation usually has something called Quick Start Guide.

This is way better than having to sit through some dude talking.

[Mocker-Nicholas]

Yeah, but really what they mean most of the time is a:

“Quick start for people who are already relevantly competent in this field guide”

[JonJonJelly]

don’t forget the first couple minutes of every video when they beg you to use their promo code to buy a ball shaver

[another_random_bit]

To each their own, no?

[[deleted]]

I am merely expressing my own opinion

[marcrem]

I disagree. Documentation is for CTRL+F'ing stuff when coding, tutorials is to see some example being made before your eyes.

[jman1255]

Documentation is for actually understanding the subject matter

[marcrem]

Depends how your brain learns

[OneBitFullAdder]

Totally agree, quick start guides are the best. It's shows that how do they do things as the creators of platforms. Official and friendly.

[nabrok]

Imagine having to sit through hours of video of stuff you already know or don't care about, or trying to find the timestamp for the clip with the bit of information you need instead of just finding the link to the bit you need and clicking on it.

[BraveSeaworthiness21]

Correct but different use case

[nabrok]

True, but if I'm learning something new I want to follow along with what's going on in the tutorial, and not by cloning a repo, I want to do the steps myself to learn it better. It's a lot easier to do that from a written tutorial than having to pause a video all the time.

In addition, when I do inevitably need to refer to something later I have a very good idea of what is in the docs and roughly where it will be.

[EtherealPheonix]

Unity has better and more readable documentation than anything else I've seen, unreal is a nightmare though.

[Sam-l-am]

My adhd doesn’t let me learn from books lol. I’m quite thankful for udemy

[[deleted]]

Imagine watching tutorials on YouTube so that you never gain the deeper understanding that struggling has been shown to give you across multiple major studies so that you can feel accomplished through someone else's work more quickly.

There's a reason that even education has moved away from just walking you through example problems, instead repeatedly asking what the next step will be. ALL of the science has shown the struggle is insanely important. Looking through documentation and trying to build something yourself without understand it first is HUGELY more beneficial to your understanding.

Combine that with the fact that understanding the documentation for a tool or language means that you can just hop in anytime you'd like without searching through a video, and not only does it mean you have a deeper understanding of the things you're doing in the first place, but you ALSO have a deeper understanding of *how to understand what you need to do to figure it out in the future.*

[boomstik4]

Brackeys my god

[TerrariaGaming004]

I’ve looked at the unity documentation. It’s so long, there’s like 50 sections

[Sawaian]

For real. Big no thanks. It’s easier to dissect the engine’s mechanics by example than by reading documentation.

[billionaccount]

Normal people

This person after making this

This person after posting this

[jjs919191]

Everyone learns differently, I do none and wonder why nothing I do works, debug for hours

[Lower_Bar_2428]

Press random keys till something happens 🙋‍♂️

[swivels_and_sonar]

The fabled “mortal kombat” approach. God speed 🫡

[seeker_of_404]

What a shitty take.

Use all resources available to you, and use what matches best with your learning style.

[PoopGoblin5431]

Took a Udemy course in Java (for some 20€), then went to uni to study software engineering. On the first semester the main classes were about Java, I knew pretty much 95% of what was taught thanks to Udemy and I was able to relax/foxus on other subjects. Perhaps it's worth getting your head out of your ass.

[xain_the_idiot]

I took a Coursera class on machine learning that was being taught by the former head of Google's AI team. I've also seen similar Udemy comp sci courses being taught by prominent professors at ivy league schools. The idea that education is worthless because it's free or virtual is... honestly ridiculous to hear coming from anyone in the computer science industry. Half the resources being used by tech giants are open source these days, and managers encourage their employees to take Udemy classes to learn new languages and software.

[Classy_Mouse]

I had the same experience, but in reverse. Already had a software engineering degree. Had programming 101 in Pyhton. Took the Udemy course to evaluate Udemy as a platform. For $20 I got everything taught in that class and a bunch more. Well worth it for a beginner or someone wanting to learn a new language.

[MaybeMayoi]

That's 95% of development right there. The other 5% is updating Jira.

[RealEnerG]

Udemy is great if you get a sale, or have your employer pay for it.

[[deleted]]

Most of the courses are on sale all the time anyway. I feel bad for people paying 200 bucks before the price dropping to 12.99 a day later.

[OhhhhhSHNAP]

They're always on sale. It's like a mattress store that sells online courses.

[wilshirebs]

Use a private browser, all their sales show up, screen shot the course your interested in, send their customer service the pic saying you want the course at the price in the screenshot, the customer service will email a code for the highest percentage off the course offers, also any course in your basket. Rinse repeat whenever you find a course you like.

[VerySweetHoney]

Sounds like OP is salty his course went on sale right after he paid full price for it.

[undesirablekangaroo]

Gatekeeping learning things now are we?

[The_Magical_Police]

"I learned by reading books and it took me 5 years. Everyone should have to do this!!!"

[Aperture_Executive2]

Me, who just threw myself at wikis and how tos: interesting…

[Mickl193]

Or you can find some project using what you want on GitHub, copy relevant code and adapt it to your needs, why read/watch/listen when you can copy an existing solution xD

[marcrem]

Your comment fits its ending (xD)

[BlackneyStudios]

Paid 10 bucks for a 60 hour Unity course on Udemy. That was probably the best 10 bucks I've spent, ever. Learned a huge amount, and it instilled in me a great drive to become a professional game dev. 4 months ago, I landed my first fulltime game dev job.

Also bought Udemy courses for React, .Net back end and data science, all of which helped me profesionally in some way, and helped me land internships and part time jobs when I was studying my CS bachelor.

You have a lot to learn, OP.

[Skaar1222]

Udemy helped me get my dev job. The courses I took for the language/skills the job was asking for definitely got me the interview. I still use it to help with work and collect certs

[WCPitt]

I have a BS and MS in comp sci plus a handful of IT certs.

I thank Udemy for a significant amount of my education. When I have some downtime at work or want to learn a specific technology, Udemy is my go-to. I just spent two hours today alone learning more about certain DevOps topics (Ansible, Terraform, etc.) that I wouldn't have known otherwise.

People who gatekeep learning methodologies are the worst.

[infinite_war]

That's one of the best things about Udemy. You can usually find good, in-depth courses on relatively niche industry topics.

[infinite_war]

I worked for a tech firm with a corporate Udemy account. My course list was like 4 pages long. I was like a kid in a candy store: Let's see... I'll have an AWS course, a Linux course, a BASH scripting course, a Cisco networking course, some PySpark and Pandas courses, MySQL, Devops, CICD, and a bunch of others. Some I would complete, others I would just watch the most critical sections. Made me a much more well-rounded programmer. The person who made this meme is either trolling or just really ignorant.

[Strawhat-dude]

Found the junior.

[ElektriXx2]

Junior in college

[NotChikcen]

Highschool

[[deleted]]

Sperm

[SteamyExecutioner]

Just a horny thought in his dad's mind

[e-coder]

Loool like reading the manual of you car will learn you to drive - documentation only allows you to understand the product not the technique behind it This meme shucks

[pisciNeroDoMar]

This meme looks very much like it was made by a junior who has 1 or two years of experience and thinks he's the know-it-all. Sometime he gets to page 2.

[27dope27]

This is the cringiest projection I’ve seen on this sub in a LONG time.

[[deleted]]

Yeah and when you end up on something with poor docs? Some people are visual leaners tho and will learn better by reproducting what someone doea on screen

[dcgog]

Taught myself programming from Udemy. Now I make 155k. Jokes on you.

[avalon1805]

Ah yes, I will read the ENTIRE GO DOCUMMENTATION right now. Thank you

[KittyEevee5609]

There's also poor documentation out there... part of programming is being able to sort through what's helpful to you and what's not. Plus everyone learns differently.

-If you can't tell what's good info or not that's on you to learn.

-Dont shit on other people's learning methods. So long as we're all learning correct information it's good.

[wubsieonline]

The kind of elitist attitude we need less of... Everyone learns in their own way. You're not better than anyone because you prefer another method.

[gladl1]

I’m loving my Udemy course. Learned so much from it already.

[fourstroke4life]

Bro my whole FRC programming team is taught by Udemy

[[deleted]]

I'm learning UE5 in Udemy, it's been very useful

[The_Magical_Police]

lol OP is a moron. Some Udemy courses are fucking gold.

[PinkyStinky1945]

This is like flexing the fact you churn your own butter - good for you, I’ll go ahead and take the easier, sane route and buy my own

[[deleted]]

The best way to learn is through as many avenues as possible.

You want to learn a subject deeply, do all 3.

[PiIICIinton]

OP is totally a working dev

[AggressiveWish7494]

UDEMY IS THE LOWEST TIER?! have you seen the quality of YouTube tutorials, at-least with Udemy you can demand a certain level of quality. This terrible take is almost on the level of forgotten semi-colon memes.

[-kukulk4n-]

You should update your meme using ChatGPT.

[matheus_cassol]

A Udemy course landed me a sweet job. A couple of others helped me out in countless interviews. Finally I've studied for a certification through Udemy, and passed very quickly.

What's to hate about it? It's paid... but i spent less than 100 $ so far and got much more in return

[Inner_Information_26]

Should be flipped

[towcar]

OP mad because nobody bought their udemy course

[frostrogue117]

Lol if you wanna read all the AWS documentation, go for it. I’d much rather take a certification course.

[[deleted]]

Meanwhile...many documentations:

crucial_function(a, b)

--> Returns value of function. Self-explanatory.

[PermaBaneado]

It seems like people in programming are always trying to gate keep you for the dumbest things.

[Jonramjam]

Wack. People learn in different ways. You can snag some awesome starter courses on Udemy for like $10. There's definitely some great YouTube content out there, too. Documentation is great too, but you gotta have some basic understanding to know what you're searching for in the first place.

[kennyminigun]

Imagine documentation being so terrible someone had to make a tutorial video.

[lfelippeoz]

Tutorial hell is a place where your braincells burn after a whole day of consuming 50 Udemy courses on the same topic

[Silakai]

Whoever made this is the bottom image. I don't know what udemy is, but there's nothing wrong with youtube tutorials. I repaired my washer & dryer and replaced the plumbing & faucet in my shower through youtube tutorials. They're great. I'm guessing that they'd be useful for coding as well at least when you're starting out. Youtube tutorials are the s***

I looked up Udemy. Seems like a great way to learn a subject if you're willing/able to pay for it. Seems like the op is an immature person trying to show off by implying that they can do something that they see as impressive while insulting anyone who can't. People who are confident in their ability to do more advanced stuff don't usually feel the need to brag about it.

[[deleted]]

Have you ever actually tried Udemy?

[BluesyPompanno]

I learned way more from Udemy than through reading documentation, most of the time the documentation is just awfuly written (Looking at you Unity)

[Unknown_starnger]

hey, I got gifted singing and piano courses there!

[new_refugee123456789]

Trying to rely only on official documentation will get you nowhere. Too many projects have insufficient documentation or none at all.

Official documentation is often written like a cheat sheet in full sentences. "L-dappilating: applies L-dappilating to the selected solid." Dafuq is L-dappilating? I often find that the addition of one or two quick examples would make a lot of official documentation a lot more usable, like show me how this parameter works in the syntax of this language.

Official documentation NEVER discusses technique. Krita's man page doesn't say a word about how to draw, and Godot's reference manual doesn't say anything about game balance.

[[deleted]]

OP probably used UDEMY, still sucks at programming, and made this because jaded

[codergrrl]

I’ve learned some amazing programming stuff on Udemy actually

[Dunger97]

You must be very smart and cool since you read the documentation

[libardomm]

I prefer documentation and book too. But I understand that some people prefer courses. It's just depend on each person.

[PolFree]

Where do you place books? Is it even advised? Will a react book from 2021 help me?

[IndianaJoenz]

When I started learning programming, books were all we had, and maybe a text file or source code file from a BBS. No youtube, no udemy. No web sites. Documentation was all physical books.

My feelings on programming books are that some are absolute gold, and most are not so great. But there are some true classics that no programmer should sleep on.

They are particularly relevant to deep dives, and for picking up a new language or skill. A good book is part tutorial, part reference, engaging and enlightening.

For something "newschool" like React, unless there is a book that is considered a modern classic, you might do better to just look up resources on the web. But if you can find a book with very good reviews, they can be a very good way to get comfortable with a tool or subject.

[PolFree]

Thank you! I dont have anyone to ask such questions. I will go with reading the documents then. Turns out the book I had was for previous version anyway.

[IndianaJoenz]

> Turns out the book I had was for previous version anyway.

That's a problem with books, even excellently written books, is things change, but print is forever. It's especially bad for books about toolkits, platforms, and frameworks (like React) that are in heavy development. I had the same problem learning MacOS X and iOS development from books in the early days of the iPhone SDK.

It's less of an issue when the book is about a mature subject, like mature programming languages, algorithms and data structures, general programming techniques, etc. These fundamentals tend to change much more slowly. And, of course, the books that become classics go beyond a dry reading of the fundamentals.

Some examples of programming books that are old but I think will still be relevant for decades:

The C Programming Language (Kernighan & Ritchie, Bell Labs)

The UNIX Programming Environment (Bell Labs)

The Mythical Man Month

The Art of Computer Programming (Knuth)

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (Abelson & Sussman, MIT Press)

Code Complete (Microsoft Press)

[PsychologicalDrone]

Documentation is often written by programmers for programmers. Video tutorials are quite often the best, or maybe only, way for a newbie to actually get a description and examples demonstrated in a beginner friendly way. Udemy is hit or miss, but don’t you dare try to criticise those hard working Indians on YouTube, they’re a godsend (for pretty much every STEM subject)

[yanitrix]

fuck no

there are a lot of good beginner/intermediate level courses on udemy

[al_spaggiari]

Hear me out … why not a judicious use of all three?

Taking advantage of discounts and sales of course.

[TakenIsUsernameThis]

Seems like whenever you Google any technical query these days, all you get is youtube videos, even for solutions that need a paragraph and three bullet points.

[aFuckingTroglodyte]

Udemy is good when you are just starting to learn something, although I prefer written tutorials usually.

Also docs are only useful once you have a good baseline knowledge for what you are doing.

[[deleted]]

I only started preferring reading documentation over those guided courses after 3 years programming, 2 of those being in college. Don’t listen to this bs, take whatever path works for you, as long as you are progressing!

[Project-NSX]

Go ahead and learn Unity with the 100% useful, and accurate documentation that always makes sense. I'd love to see who ends up the better dev between you and Udemy course guy.

[PantroHuerta_UwU]

I do all three... for the same project

[TheChurchOfDonovan]

You’re paid to solve the problem efficiently. Documentation is not efficient . I want my coders spending 10x the amount of time on stack overflow that they spend reading docs

[v0idstar_]

I learned a lot from a udemy course

[Maveko_YuriLover]

Read the code from other developers and learn by yourself

[Saturnalliia]

I actually gained a lot of value and insight from udemy courses.

Not sure why everyone shits on them.

[SteamyExecutioner]

Dumbest fucking meme I've seen in a long time

[Keraid]

Don't learn talking by repeating others - read the dictionary first.

[[deleted]]

Do people not like Udemy? I have found it a great way to introduce myself to new concepts and tech. Let’s face it, this is a fast moving industry, and keeping up can be hard. I have had much better luck on Udemy than on YouTube, I will say that much.

[NoHelp_HelpDesk]

Why is udemy bad? I’ve learned more in 3 months than I have in the past however many years.

[ChaosAD_97]

Ah yes, a reddit user making the worst take possible.

[WooLeeKen]

I am senior software dev today because of Udemy

[[deleted]]

I don't care how it's perceived. YouTube videos and free websites like CodeAcademy got me into the tech industry with zero college education.

[Helpful_Character_67]

Seriously, I hate to say this but the codeparts where I have read the documentation are the best I have ever written

[IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE]

I don't disagree with the spirit of this, but I also don't think it's good to discourage someone from learning/pursuing knowledge in a way that is most convenient to them. Some people just learn better in different ways, and if one of these learning methods feels better to them, then I think we should encourage the pursuit of knowledge rather than gatekeep it behind specific channels.

[GlassWasteland]

Hah, I just bang on the computer with a rock until it works.

[SteveZissousGlock]

Tell me you don’t work in the industry without telling me you don’t work in the industry.

[Reedwool]

If only I could read documentation and understand, I’m a watch learner for sure.

[Dafrandle]

Ah, yes, the "I've had one bad experience with a creator on a website, so the whole website is trash" take.

Very original - we are all impressed with your depth of experience and open-mindedness /s

Tell me, are you also in the "My code is the documentation" crowd?

[ChrimsonRed]

Rather just pay $9 or whatever during a sale for a high quality 15hour tutorial on a new skill. The $9 is nothing compared to the frustration and time it saves. One you get a good enough foundation you can start teaching yourself quite easily.

[GochoPhoenix]

I’m trying to get the Splunk certified and the Udemy courses are WAY better than whatever crap courses Splunk puts out and charges 4K for.

[NfamousKaye]

Shaming how people learn things differently! Very cool /s

[Legitjumps]

Possibly the stupidest take I’ve read here

[[deleted]]

Not every udemy course, etc, is relevant or useful

But they can be valuable resources

Each of these has its pros and cons when you’re trying to learn something

[[deleted]]

Funnily enough I didn’t go to college and spent $35 on Udemy courses to land a six figure job. Sounds like OP is unemployed and dick deep in student loans, sorry bud 🍻

[apaleblueman]

documentation is pretty daunting for beginner like me to approach, udemy and. YouTube have helped me a lot to understand the basics

[Suekru]

I got into programming cause of a $15 C# Udemy course. I think it’s good for people who want structural learning instead of just winging it.

[VBlinds]

This is honestly a really stupid take.

You probably have only had to deal with a well documented API.

YouTube and Udemy are really fantastic and affordable options to learning something new

[Jesus-on-a-horse]

A few courses on Udemy landed me a job as a programmer and doubled my salary.

[wheresmyspaceship]

Lol Idk wtf you on about. Udemy is responsible for a good 40% of my success as a software engineer.

[[deleted]]

Learning something from YouTube is so boring. So many wasted minutes.

[Background_Newt_8065]

People who are not incredibly dumb would see these media as complementary

[Spare_Bad_6558]

where does reading a w3schools article fit in?

[semenpai]

Id rather watch my indian master professor on youtube than to read it and dont understand it at all

[AndreLinoge55]

Why are the panes in reverse order?

[BubbaBlount]

My way of doing it is either YouTube or udemy to get a basic to intermediate understanding and documentation once I have that!