[someday_somehow]

I spent over a 100 hours working through MOOCs and video tutorials over the past month only to find out that all I would learn at the end would be the basics that wouldn't really be help if someone asked me to 'go build'. I'd have the same feeling even after completing an advanced level course.

What we need are technical MOOCs that discuss what decisions to make when approaching a problem, evaluating trade-offs, what are the common practices you'd come across in a production environment and where the concept you learned fits in the big picture.

I haven't found any MOOC that talks about the above in depth for web dev and the only youtuber I found who talks about this is TechLead but he mostly puts out 10 minute clips instead of complete tutorials.

I've gone back to books and I'm learning much more per time spent studying something.

[spitfire]

I thought tech lead was a satire (as a millionaire).

Practical application is an area I've always thought was sorely lacking. There's lots of places to learn the theory, but I still don't get it until I understand the applications. Then I start to get a fingertip feel (Fingerspitzengefuhl if you want to come from a certain view).

Whenever I see "Application is left as an exercise for the reader", I read that as "I don't actually understand the subject well enough to teach it fully".

[someday_somehow]

I checked his channel after your comment and it seems he's gone all-in on the satire recently. He does put out a really good video occasionally.

To give you an idea of what he does that's missing in MOOCs, take a look at his video in which he migrates a database to a new server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4EYnCgIwc

Throughout the video he talks about why he chooses a particular method among the different approaches available, discusses their pros and cons, what are some of the issues you might encounter in the real world that you should consider. Even if the video is about migrating a database he goes through many other related topics like DNS, choosing the server hardware and OS. He also talks about his past experiences and observations throughout. It feels more engaging and you feel like an apprentice rather than a passive consumer.