I am a solo learner. I started coding last year with the help of AI and sometimes without any tutorials or courses.
At first, I thought this journey would be easier. But soon I realized something important — no AI or tool can fully solve the real problems I was facing as a developer.
I used AI a lot. It explained things with confidence and even provided code.
But when I ran that code in my terminal, many times it didn’t work.
That’s when I understood something important: AI can guide, but it cannot replace understanding.
After facing these issues, I changed my way of learning.
Instead of blindly trusting AI, I started:
This helped me understand real-world code better.
From this learning journey, I realized something: I should also build my own open-source projects.
At first, I believed that creating a powerful project could automatically bring attention and users.
But I was wrong.
I made a mistake — I was not active on any platform.
I was just coding inside VS Code, without communication or sharing my work anywhere.
Then I realized:
Being a developer is not only about coding. Visibility and communication are also important.
After that realization, I started being active on platforms like Dev.to, LinkedIn, and other developer communities.
I started posting my work and sharing my progress.
Even though I didn’t get many comments, I started getting reactions and engagement. That small feedback gave me motivation.
From this journey, I learned something important: Open source is not only about code. It is about helping other developers, sharing knowledge, and being consistent and visible.
A developer should not only code silently but also participate in the community.
Now I understand that coding is only one part of being a developer. Community, communication, and consistency are equally important.
And I will continue building open source projects while staying active in developer platforms.