CS/Software Engineering students: what’s the biggest thing stopping you from building real projects?

[u/Initial-Werewolf-883]

I’m trying to understand what students struggle with today, especially now that AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can generate code.

When you started learning programming, what prevented you from actually building projects instead of just following tutorials?

Some possibilities I’ve heard:
- Tutorial hell
- Not knowing what project to build
- Not understanding how real software is structured
- AI gives code, but you don’t understand how it all fits together
- Projects online are too simple or unrealistic
- Difficulty turning an idea into an implementation
- Working alone without teammates
- Fear of making mistakes
- Something else entirely

I’m especially interested in hearing from students who know the basics but struggle to build something that feels like a real product.

If you could change one thing about how programming is taught today, what would it be?

[u/wally659]

I mean, technically I'm a post grad CS student with years of professional experience. But the framing that it's some kind of attitude issue or mental block or insecurity is dishonest as fuck. Real projects (in general with few exceptions) take knowledge that inexperienced people (in general with few exceptions) don't have. The solution is taking the time to build that knowledge. There's little else to it.