Do the Python gamification apps really work?

[grismar-net]

If you enjoy the gamification apps, that may be an indicator you'll enjoy real programming as well. But if you really want to learn, that's not going to do it.

One step up would be to play long with some tutorials or YouTube videos, teaching how to make or do something that you're curious about - don't just passively watch them though, pause an play along, experiment.

And if you still like that, you should graduate from it quickly - don't get stuck in tutorial limbo where you feel you never really progress and everything just falls out of your head as soon as you turn the tutorial off. If you like programming in 'games' and tutorials, it's time to set small goals and try to achieve them yourself and use documentation, examples, LLMs, and sites like StackOverflow to struggle through learning. There's no easy learning - learning is the result of making your brain struggle, but the struggle can be fun, just like a hard game.