When I think back to my earliest days of learning online, tutorials were everything. I followed them like recipes—step one, step two, step three—and at the end I had something that worked. Or at least something that resembled the picture on the screen.
But lately I find myself less interested in following, and more interested in wandering. Tutorials don’t hold the same weight they once did, not because they’re less useful, but because the way we approach learning has shifted.
This is why I’ve stopped creating traditional step-by-step tutorials on my YouTube channel. Instead, I explore together with my audience, learning in real time and inviting them into the process rather than presenting a finished path.
Part of this change comes from experience. Over time, you learn to trust your instincts. You start to recognize patterns. You know when to save your progress before you experiment, and when to ignore the warning signs that a mistake is about to happen because sometimes mistakes are where the real lessons live.
Another part of the shift is cultural. We’re moving away from the idea that there’s one “right” way to do things. Creativity has seeped into the cracks of even the most technical work. We remix, we borrow, we adapt. Following someone else’s script feels less satisfying than writing our own.
And then there’s AI. Instead of relying on a single tutorial, we now have the ability to ask questions as we go. We can bring a tool into the conversation, one that answers in real time, that adapts to the path we’re taking rather than insisting we follow a fixed set of steps. AI doesn’t replace the need to learn—it changes the shape of the learning itself. It turns the process into something more collaborative, more immediate, and often more personal.
That doesn’t mean tutorials are obsolete. They still serve a purpose, especially when you’re entering new territory and need a map. But I no longer think of them as the destination. They’re more like trail markers: useful to glance at, reassuring to see, but not the reason you set out on the path.
What excites me now is the mix—holding on to the guidance when I need it, but leaving plenty of space for improvisation. It feels less like consuming information and more like making discoveries. And in that shift, I sense the real reason tutorials are fading. Not because we’re done learning, but because we’ve learned how to learn differently.
