Made a perfect 6-month plan to learn coding and switch careers. It's been 3 months. I haven't finished a single project.

📚 Education & Studyby career_switcher_99 · 5w ago

▸ What I did

I'm 29, working in marketing, and decided to switch to software development. Spent 2 weeks creating the Perfect Plan: month 1-2 learn JavaScript fundamentals, month 3-4 React + Node, month 5 build portfolio projects, month 6 start applying. Bought 3 Udemy courses, bookmarked 50 YouTube tutorials, joined 4 Discord servers. Set a goal of 4 hours of coding per day after work.

▸ What I expected

Follow the plan. By month 3 I'd be building real projects. By month 6 I'd have a portfolio and start getting interviews. Everyone on r/learnprogramming says "just put in the hours."

▸ What actually happened

Week 1: great, did 4 hours/day. Week 2: 2 hours/day, kept getting stuck on basic concepts and spending 3 hours on Reddit asking "should I learn React or Vue?" Week 3: crisis — read a post saying JavaScript is dead and everyone should learn Rust. Spent a week "researching" languages instead of coding. Month 2: barely touched code, fell into a spiral of watching "day in the life of a developer" videos instead of actually coding. Month 3: I've "started" 6 different tutorials and finished zero. My GitHub has 4 repos with just a README file. I know more about the tech industry discourse than actual programming.

▸ What I've tried so far

Tried the Pomodoro technique (helped for 2 days then stopped). Tried accountability partners on Discord (we both stopped showing up). Tried switching from JavaScript to Python because "it's easier" (same problem, different language). Tried a structured bootcamp-style curriculum (freeCodeCamp) but got bored at the CSS section. The pattern is always the same: excited start → hit a wall → pivot to "research" → never come back.

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3 Replies

self_taught_sara · 5w ago✓ the fix

I was you 2 years ago. Here's what broke the cycle: I deleted every course, every bookmark, every "learn to code" YouTube playlist. Then I picked ONE thing to build — a personal budget tracker. Not because it was the best project, but because I needed one. Every time I got stuck, I Googled THAT specific problem instead of watching a general tutorial. Took me 3 weeks to build something ugly that barely worked. But it was MINE and it was DONE. That one finished project gave me more confidence than 6 months of "learning." Stop studying coding. Start building something. Anything.

been_there_dev · 5w ago

The "should I learn React or Vue" rabbit hole is the biggest trap in tech education. Here's the secret: it doesn't matter. Pick either one, build 3 projects, and you'll be employable. Switching between technologies is easy once you know one well. The hard part isn't choosing — it's committing. Set a rule: no "research" for 30 days. Just build with whatever you already started learning. If you hate it after 30 days of ACTUALLY USING IT, then switch.

startup_therapist · 5w ago

Your problem isn't motivation or discipline. It's that your plan has no EXTERNAL accountability. 4 hours/day after work with no deadline, no teacher, no deliverable = a suggestion, not a plan. Find something with a real deadline: a friend who needs a website, a local nonprofit that needs a simple app, or even a hackathon. When someone is WAITING for your code, you stop debating React vs Vue real fast.

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✗ stuck

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