talked to a friend yesterday whos been studying UI/UX in NYC for a year

shes excited because shes finally about to start learning how to build websites. dream job is designing for the top companies in the world
asked her how many websites shes built so far
zero
shes still "learning"
its a common trap most people fall into; they think learning is sitting in a classroom or watching a course or reading the right book first, like theres some amount of theory you have to absorb before youre allowed to start making things
the actual way you get good at anything is literally just reps. doing the thing badly, then less badly, then okay, then good, until eventually you suck less
if she had spent the last year building one website a day with Claude or Cursor or any of the tools that exist now, shed be at 365 websites and I guarantee her 300th website will look 100x better than her first
instead she has a year of notes and still at the starting line
and im not saying this to dunk on her (i told her this exactly & she knows)
times have changed now and you don't need to spend multiple years in school and go in debt to learn things
If you have access to the internet & a laptop, you can do virtually anything you want
all you have to do is start, ship things, fail and do it long enough to suck less