1. Read the Error Message

When you hit an error, don’t panic. Read the error message first. Most of the time, it tells you exactly what’s wrong. It also teaches you something about how the library or framework works under the hood. Reading it carefully can save time and improve understanding.

2. Read Documentation (and Use AI with It)

When you start with a new library or framework, read the documentation carefully. Here’s a hack:

• Copy big chunks of the docs into AI tools.
• Ask questions about things you don’t understand.
• Play around with the examples provided.

This saves hours later because you avoid common mistakes. It’s like a cheat code for faster learning.

3. Follow Your Curiosity

Don’t force yourself to learn something just because it’s trending. Follow what excites you. When you enjoy the process, you go deeper and stick with it longer. Right now, I’m building a silly multiplayer racing game, just because I want to play it with friends. Fun projects often teach the most.

4. Learn Different Things

Don’t lock yourself into one tech stack. Explore different tools and frameworks. The more you do this, the easier it gets to pick up new things. Early in my career, I built side projects with different libraries just for variety, not to master them all, but to gain breadth.

5. Build From Scratch

If you want real mastery, try building something from scratch. I’ve tried rebuilding React four times. Failed every time. But I learned a lot before even looking at the real code. Building forces you to think about design, developer experience, and architecture like no tutorial can.

6. Build. A Lot.

Reading and videos won’t make you great. Building will. Create projects, big and small. Ship them. Show demos. You’ll learn more by doing than by consuming content.

7. Ask Questions

Ask questions everywhere—communities, colleagues, Reddit, Hacker News. Don’t let your “known unknowns” grow. Kill them as soon as possible. The longer you leave questions unanswered, the slower your growth.

8. Teach Others

Teaching is learning twice. Write blog posts. Share tutorials. Explain things in videos. This forces you to understand concepts deeply and reveals gaps in your knowledge.

The Tools I Use for This Workflow

Here’s my current stack for smooth learning and creating:

• FigJam – for brainstorming and ideation.
• Notion – for organizing thoughts and structuring content.
• Google Docs – for collaboration and editing.
• Zenpad – for brain dumps and critical thinking.
• ChatGPT & Perplexity – for writing, research, and refining ideas.
• Qwen – for coding, logic, and math-heavy tasks.

This combo helps me move from raw ideas to refined outputs without friction.

If you take one thing from this post, let it be this: Build a lot. Read a lot. Ask a lot. Teach a lot. Use the right tools to support the process. Repeat this cycle and you’ll grow faster than you think.