i really hate those ‘build an app in 10/30/60 minutes (with/without AI)!’ tutorials. they make software engineering seem effortless and superficial, which is so far from the reality. these kinds of videos trap beginners in ‘tutorial hell,’ where they’re building apps they don’t care about, learning almost nothing in the process, and they also kill creativity if you’re trapped in it.
real progress happens when you dive into the documentation, think deeply about design (both visual and engineering — these tutorials will provide boring UI design templates and assets), and learn through trial and error. you need to refine the app over and over again. the ‘quick-fix’ mindset that these tutorials promote often skips over critical aspects like security and architecture. without proper security considerations, you’re not just risking bad design—you could end up with massive cloud service bills due to poor planning.
this mentality is also why traditional engineers don’t take software engineers seriously. software engineering is a discipline that deserves seriousness and respect, not clickbait that trivializes the entire field. with the emergence of LLM chatbots, it’s becoming worse, as beginners and tutors will rely on them too much. it becomes an endless loop where shitty tutors using LLM teach beginners shitty code, which eventually feeds back to LLM.
we need to stop promoting these unhealthy shortcut tutorials.