6 months into FCC, struggling with layout/responsiveness, and navigating AI anxiety. Am I on the right track?

[camaguncoso]

Hi everyone,

I’m a beginner currently working my way through the project-based freeCodeCamp Responsive Web Design curriculum. I’ve been at it for about 6 months now. Building a career in Tech has always been my dream, and for me, the timeline doesn’t matter—what matters to me is truly solidifying my understanding. I refuse to rush through projects just to tick a box; I want to be able to build things on my own.

So far, I’ve managed to build the Survey Form and a Tribute Page by myself. For the Tribute Page, I handled the layout structure on my own, but used AI (ChatGPT, Co-pilot, and Grok) as my “designers” to help me pick out the fonts and color palette.

Even though I got those done, I’m dealing with two major hurdles and some severe anxiety right now:

1. The Technical Struggle (Layouts & Responsiveness): Concepts take a long time to register in my brain. Even after 6 months, my CSS still feels like it’s lacking. Making projects truly responsive is a massive struggle for me. Right now, I use ChatGPT as my “coach” when I do CSS repetition drills to understand how and why elements work, and then I take notes.

2. Burnout & Overwhelm: Learning this stuff can be incredibly overwhelming. To protect my mental health and avoid burnout, I don’t spend long, gruelling hours coding. I take long breaks to reset my system before diving back in.

3. AI Era Anxiety: With how fast tech is moving, I constantly battle anxiety that front-end dev skills will be obsolete by the time I’m ready. It’s hard to focus when the world makes you feel like the goalposts are constantly moving.

I want to know from real people who have been through this:

• Am I on the right track? Is my slow, methodical approach with AI coaching and long breaks sustainable, or am I missing something?

• How long did it take you to truly “get” layout logic and responsiveness without feeling like your CSS was lacking?

• What mindset should I adopt right now to protect my peace while I learn in this era of AI?

Thank you so much in advance for your time and reality checks!

[pkdvalis]

Don’t sweat it. Don’t worry if you don’t understand it fully. There are many professional devs who probably still struggle with all of the same things.

I wouldn’t do “repetition drills” like that, you cannot learn programming this way.

Learn. Build. Move on.

If it’s something you use a lot, you will remember it. Otherwise you will figure it out in the future. Maybe you will be a backend dev who never touches CSS. Don’t worry about perfecting anything right now.

You are not alone and memes like this exist for a reason:

[camaguncoso]

Okay thanks for that. I also mentioned AI, where are you with how and how’s your journey with it?