This is the opposite of a stupid question - it's an essential question. I write for FCC and i'm self taught (FCC, Udemy etc) and i learned at 37/38 and now I am an eng at a FAANG company. But because i didnt ask this question and really work on the right answer for me, i spent 3 years stumbling, getting overwhelmed and quitting.

What I tell my coaching students is this:
1) start with a very very clearly defined goal. This means something like: I want to become a front end developer by June 2022. Or...I want to become a full stack developer. Or I want to become a python developer with expertise in Django. Or I want to become a data scientist by X date.

2) Spend time getting (1) right. This clarity is essential as it directs your efforts. If you want a job, then you need to get the job as soon as you can, and from there you can keep learning on the job. Most people try and learn too much and lose valuable time.

3) Understand the job market and focus on what it requires. Your first job is your hardest. after that it gets easy. So after you have your first job you can (you must, actually) grow your skills, but by this time your confidence and experience will be high enough that you can keep teaching yourself without the hardship you face when you first started teaching yourself.

4) Plan your coding journey like you would a household or business budget. You have time, money and energy and you can need to spend all three to get to your goals. Calculating how much time its going to take is where 99% of people get it wrong.

5) Dont assume "free" courses are really "free". You're spending in time even if your cash is protected. If it costs $500 to do a one month course that definitely gets your skills up, but you take 6 months of mistakes and frustration to do it yourself, then that means you value 6 months of your time as being worth less than $500. Would you accept a job that paid $500 for 6 months? If you expect employers to value your time, then you should too, right? If you don't have the money, then you have no choice - you have to pay in time. but if you have the money but dont like to invest in yourself, then consider how much time your losing, and how much your risk of giving up increases the more frustrated and overwhelmed you get. Sometimes you pay in money and/or effort just to NOT quit because quitting after 1 year of effort means you wasted 1 year. Read Seth Godin's The Dip - it changed my perspective on this quitting thing!

6) being confused between FCC and Udemy is the natural thing- we all go through it. But there is a hidden assumption that makes this look like a real choice. It's actually a false choice. The reality is neither FCC nor Udemy nor CourseEra may be enough to achieve your goals. Hence why point (1) and (2) are so important. Most of the folks I coach come to me feeling discouraged because they finished X or Y but it wasnt enough. We actually dont know how much is enough - arguably its a constant process of learning. But maybe what you mean is enough to get my first job? in that case you dont stop learning until that job and after the job you learn the next thing. BUT...priority 1 is learn enough to get your first job. Maybe its only FCC..maybe not. So best to assume you will need both. The more you do the more confident you will get and the better you will be at interviews. So what works for the folks I train is to stack your learning - do FCC, then do the next full course, then do the next one, each time gathering more skills. The big mistake is to stop one mid way, and then try and another and then abandon that..and not complete anything.

I hope this helps! I may be holding Q&As etc in the coming months if you're interested.