Sharing knowledge to fight ignorance.

Fake Projects

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Written by: Vanza Setia

Fake projects are great for people who are new to web development or programming in general. They give people unlimited opportunities to make mistakes, which is good for learning. But the problem is that they are fake.

Problems start arising when people believe that by making lots of fake projects, they will be great developers. They overestimate their abilities. Their expectation is unrealistic. They believe making websites with the Lorem Ipsum text is enough. In fact, that is not enough and will never be enough.

If you make fake projects, no matter how cool they are, they are fake. They are only useful for you to learn new things. They are useless for others.

I remember when I was still a beginner I said to my relatives that I was a great developer. Then, their reply was, "What did you make?" I answered, "I made lots of websites from design files. But they were all fake projects." Then, I realized that I made lots of websites that give zero benefit to other people.

Another story, when I was on an interview through a video call, a hiring manager, a guy sitting at his desk with a casual shirt, asked me while looking at my resume on his computer screen, "Are these client projects?" I said, "No, they are not. They are projects from a learning platform called Frontend Mentor." He replied immediately, "So there are no real projects, right?" I answered, "Yes, that is true."

At that time, I was feeling very proud of myself that I was a great web developer. That feeling was great, but wrong. To think that fake projects can make me a great web developer was a mistake.

Now, if you are new to web development and feel stagnant, you need to make a real project. Learn from people who are working in the industry, not just from a person who is only making courses and YouTube videos.

I was learning web development from people on YouTube when I was a beginner. Their videos were great. Following along with tutorials was fun and easy to do. But I could not be where I am now if I kept doing that.

If you want to advance, learn from people like Heydon Pickering and Andy Bell. Watch them talk about web development. (You can find their talks on YouTube.)

Make a personal website. Share it with people. Get feedback from your users. Clearly state that you are still learning. I am sure lots of people will help you. If you find people mocking your website, ignore them. This way, you will understand that

  • developing a website is a long process; and
  • writing code once is and will never be enough; and
  • rewriting code a lot of times is normal; and
  • communicating with your users is important; and
  • making websites that help real users is very essential; and
  • writing code is only one aspect of developing a great website.

I hope this helps. Please share this article with your friends. Let me know your opinions.

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