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> But at the start, there is no substitute. And the start lasts longer than you may think.

Don't worry, he explicitly says this at the top.

> Don’t get me wrong, I love MOOCs. They’re great for trying to learn a new programming language (e.g., Python, Scala) or framework (e.g., Spark, TensorFlow) or subject (e.g., statistics, machine learning). The structured learning environment, excellent teaching, and exercises (and solutions) guide us through the best way to learn new concepts. > >But most of the time, we don’t really need it. If we already know machine learning, taking that shiny new MOOC won’t help with applying it more effectively.

The counterpoint is if you dive right into a project and make a bunch mistakes it'll stick a lot more when you learn the "proper" way.

Students not understanding "why" something is done a certain way is the downfall of countless courses. But unfortunately, more often than not, you're not in a position to understand why people tell you to do X until you've personally done Y.

This is the main reason that I still like proper books over quick tutorials. It's easy to end up fighting platforms and frameworks to make it do what you want. If you know the patterns and available features, it's less likely that you'll face the same levels of friction.

As with so many things in life the best way probably doesn't live at either extreme. Often times I'll read about a subject and not fully understand it (and probably not even take the extra time to fully understand it) but when the problem comes up organically a light bulb goes off and I at least know what I'm googling for at that point.

Continuing on with this train of thought, I agree with you. I'm not a programmer but I once had to learn how to use networking software for real world implementations, things like mailservers, firewalls etc etc. I did a fair bit of JIT but finally got hold of some courses for each piece of software. The bump in my knowledge and understanding was raised by a few orders of magnitude that almost 15 years later has still stuck with me. It's about funding the right expert as you say. The right person is invaluable.

> If you find a really good tutorial by programmers who are both excellent teachers and experienced in that particular field, it beats JIT learning on a personal project in one important respect. You get exposure to the One True Way of doing things.

That's exactly my feeling when I was watching Jon Gjengset's Rust tutorials. I like his real reactions to unexpected problems. Really learned a lot from this kind of lengthy but realistic videos. https://www.youtube.com/c/JonGjengset/featured

Steve Huffman's web development course was excellent on Udacity.

> If you find a really good tutorial by programmers who are both excellent teachers and experienced in that particular field

For me at least, there is an over-abundance of thickly-accented English-speaking Indian people playing specifically trap music in the background, when it comes to 'good tutorials'. Not by any means a majority, but they punch well above their weight-class. It's so very odd, but they really do know how to guide me on what it is that I need a hand with.