Build → Get Stuck → Learn → Refactor 💪What does your learning process look like?

For all of my projects as a dev, I've had to learn something.

We have 2 options:
a) Learn and then Build (📚 → 🏗️)

b) Learn by building (🏗️ → 📚)

I find that b) is way superior. I'm more motivated & I learn faster.

Back in 2020, I learned Flutter and built Introspekt. But, it wasn't quite like that. I just learnt the bare basics of Flutter, built Introspekt and learnt more nuance along the way.

I created the MVP really quickly and launched it...but the code was spaghetti 🍝

So in 2021, when I decided to rebuilt Introspekt in SwiftUI, I decided I would learn everything thoroughly first.

Fast-forward a whole year and I found myself in February 2022 with only a basic understanding of SwiftUI and no MVPs to show for the time.

So, I quit the tutorial, and started building a simple, ad-free Sudoku app. In a week I had an MVP, and had learnt more SwiftUI than I had in a year.

For me Building → Learning is what works best. But, I would add a new step to the end, Refactor. To avoid spaghetti code, it makes sense to refactor your old code when you learn new techniques.

Build → Get Stuck → Learn → Refactor 💪

What does your learning process look like as a dev?