Here's how I look at it. You're absolutely right you can learn everything on your own––but how long would it take? How much is your time worth?
Is $100 for five hours of video worth the years of experience the author might have? For me, it is.
Is $100 for five hours of video worth the years of experience the author might have? For me, it is.
Though in my experience, the courses on Udemy/Udacity and the like have been disappointing. I always get the feeling that they're trying to fill up time, and they tend to move really slowly.
I've had more luck with books being very useful.
This 2-hour-course vs 10-hour-learning is a false dichotomy to me.
A course, or any kind of structured learning, is just a foundation. I would still expect to spend hours outside of the course, but with a good background I can now search for more specific things than if I had started w/ a blank slate.