There's a big difference between learning to solve problems and learning to look up existing solutions.
When approaching a new problem, it's good to make a serious attempt at solving it yourself from scratch (reinventing the wheel if necessary) before looking up best practices.
When approaching a new problem, it's good to make a serious attempt at solving it yourself from scratch (reinventing the wheel if necessary) before looking up best practices.
First of all, it's practice for problem-solving. It also makes you more familiar with the crux of the problem as well as subtleties you might otherwise be missing -- you will find it much easier to understand other existing solutions after thinking about the problem for a while.
And crucially, approaching problems from first principles means that the act of looking up best practices later will not artificially restrict the space of thoughts you can think.
Because you've already glimpsed the possibilities. You won't merely assume "this is the only way".
Because you've already glimpsed the possibilities. You won't merely assume "this is the only way".
