Practice :) A tiny deliverable after each chapter or tutorial, something simple you can finish in a few days. Accept that it will “fail” sometimes, that’s part of it.

The best bit: the doubts you hit while practicing tell you exactly what to learn next.

That’s how you get out of tutorial hell: you stop following the course and start following your own questions.

Tutorial hell might be some type of procrastination. I’d watch YouTube videos all day on all topics because I didn’t want to create something and just “learn”, but it doesn’t create real skill and it is not where the fun lies.

The biggest challenge might just be to find the thing you want and can do. If you really want to learn, then you might just regulate your want to some beginner level that is borderline useless.

Take language leaning for example, you want to speak enough to understand a conversation, but as this takes a LOT of time it gets frustrating really fast. What you can do is learn a simple sentence and try to speak it and understand it. “Good morning, how are you doing?” — “Guten Morgen, wie geht es dir?”.

Or programing, don’t think about this huge project, but a simple simple action; read variables from a document or create a function for some math. One of my first programing was calculating Fibonacci numbers.

In my opinion it might not be so bad to be stuck in tutorial hell, it might just be a form of entertainment for you. But if its a form of addiction, then maybe treat it as such. If it is a form of escaism then treat it as such. If it is adhd or autism or something else then treat it as such. Take simple and small steps, celebrate successes however small they are and think why you defaulted to tutorials instead of doing something, even thought you want to do something

Try to do something yourself, and look up specific info when you need it. When you’re done (or hit a complete dead end), look back and ask yourself what you would do differently. The goal is to understand the choices you have to make, not just to be able to do each necessary subtask.

What, exactly, is “tutorial hell” for you? If I learn something, I learn it and then use it. I may have to refresh some details if I change programming languages or hardware configurations, but I would not consider this “tutorial hell”. The last time I had to learn something seriously different (in terms of needing professional training), it was three intense days, and then I started developing a new product the next day.

Does school count as tutorial hell? What about a coding bootcamp?

Take one thing you want to achieve and drill down until you get there. Then widen from there.

Your question is too vague. What is the subject and how familiar are you with other stuff related to it?

If I know most of what I need, I just go with whatever, and use web search when I hit gaps in my knowledge.

If I know zero about it, I might try a tutorial, but depending what it is, I often prefer to find an expert level reference document and work through it starting on page 1. It takes longer but you get more solid understanding that way.

Somewhere in between can be problematic. The gaps in your knowledge can mean not knowing things that are interdependent on each other. So you hit a snag and don’t know where to look. Might want to restart as if from zero.

Fear not the man who has practiced 1000 kicks but the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times

Ask lots of questions from those around you who have done it. They don’t have to be masters, but experienced. Don’t be afraid to be a learner. Soak up knowledge like a sponge.

Deliberately avoid all instruction. Use your intution, make it up as you go along.

I can’t say that I necessarily recommend this particular brand of insanity to just anyone, but it worked for me.

…I think.

If you’re talking about Youtube video tutorials, an effective trick is to press the ‘3’ key when the video starts. That will take you 30% into the runtime. You skip all the ‘hey guys’ and ‘this is why I made this video’ fluff and get strait to the information. It’s spooky how well this works.

In my experience they’re only good when you find those that teach you exactly what you’re trying to do, otherwise it’s stuff you have no use for.

Better avoid them unless you happen to find one about the specific task you are stuck at and you need a more practical example.

Figure out what you actually want to do with your skill.

A very easy goal to begin with.

Eg you want to learn how to program? Okay you will make a calculator app.

Next step make a gui.

Next make it recognize your handwriting and parse the equation you write by hand.

Watch tutorials until you think you know how to do it and cludge together something.

Watch the tutorials about avoiding tutorial hell.

I got in touch with very kind and able teachers. Without them, I’d be nothing these days when it comes to my hobbies (and my profession).