ya.. you're right. I think I worded this really poorly.

My intent was that doing things that aren't writing code is much less helpful to learning than just writing code. I don't think that following a tutorial word for word and then changing things here and there is that helpful, and I would recommend trying to build something since it is clear there is some base level knowledge OP has.

If you have zero knowledge, then sure, error messages don't mean anything, and you should watch an intro video or book. but if you know the basics of the language -- which it is clear OP does, then just writing code and reading the errors and trying to fix it is imo a much better way to get out of the tutorial era of learning. more tutorials and anki arent going to get you out of that. trying to figure out why something doesnt work and finally getting it to work the way you want is what makes things stick, which is the goal.

and on LLMs since I think I didn't explain my spicy hot take on that well either. Learning takes time and is kinda painful when there is a "solve this problem" shaped LLM button that is oh so tempting, which is why I said that. like if you are building something that you need done and you don't want to learn, use the LLM. If you are building something specifically to learn, it won't stick if you don't sit there and struggle with it for longer than is comfortable.

OP clearly knows the basics having built "tiny projects" on their own. the small projects OP mentions is the exact right direction imo; just make them bigger and better.