What do you do when you decide to do something new? It could be a cooking recipe, organizing a drawer, learning to draw, or even investing in the stock market.
You’ll probably reach for your phone and look for a guide or tutorial. Someone to explain how to do it step by step without making a mistake.
But before you know it, you’re trapped in an endless stream of videos: “Tutorial for beginners,” “Tutorial for beginners who aren’t so beginners anymore,” “The ultimate tutorial you must watch before you dare to…”
Welcome to tutorial syndrome.
What exactly is tutorial syndrome?
The tutorial syndrome refers to the modern tendency to look for instructions for absolutely everything, even for things we could perfectly improvise because, if we do them wrong, the world won’t end.
The problem is that in many cases this search has a paradoxical effect: it paralyzes us. In other words, it steals an enormous amount of time, postponing action, while we delve into an endless loop of guides, tutorials, and explanations that, in the long run, tend to generate more confusion.
The algorithm as a personal trainer… for paralysis
The tutorial syndrome feeds on a silent enemy: recommendation algorithms.
Social media platforms are designed to keep us glued to our phones, not to get us to put them down and take action. Basically, every time you’re thinking about taking action, the algorithm suggests another tutorial. More comprehensive. More specific. More foolproof…
Each tutorial we consume increases the likelihood that we will be recommended another one and another and another… generating an infinite pseudo-learning loop.
This is largely due to what psychology calls intermittent reinforcement . In other words, you never know if the next video will be “THE VIDEO” – in capital letters – that will solve all your problems, turn you into a successful investor, allow you to remodel your bathroom like a pro, or help you create a memorable recipe.
The system rewards this passivity with dopamine: the feeling that you’re learning something, even if only in theory. This is how you develop the endless tutorial syndrome; you stay glued to the screen without daring to take the plunge because, supposedly, there’s always something more to learn.
However, the paradox is that even if you try to absorb everything, you’ll end up forgetting most of it. Since we’ve had access to online information, our retention rate has decreased significantly. This is largely because there’s no better way to memorize something than by putting it into practice.
In fact, the cognitive theory of multimedia learning points out that because working memory has a limited capacity, presenting too many elements at once can generate cognitive overload, exceeding processing capacity and causing some of that information to be poorly processed. In other words, overwhelming ourselves with tutorials when we lack experience can be counterproductive, even leaving us feeling overwhelmed.
Tutorials, the perfect hiding place for the fear of starting
Tutorial syndrome isn’t just a problem of information overload. At its core, it’s a problem of fear. Because after the second or third tutorial (depending on the complexity of the task at hand), we no longer watch them to learn, but to procrastinate.
Often, we want to feel productive without having to expose ourselves to the real risk of making mistakes, or the most dreaded of all: discovering that we may not be as competent as we thought.
Tutorials offer a friendly, deceptive sense of control. They allow us to fantasize about a better version of ourselves without having to confront reality. It’s like sharpening pencils for two hours before you start writing: technically you’re doing something… but not the important thing. And in the end, all you’ll achieve is wasted time and worn-out pencils.
It is a pattern of experiential avoidance, the tendency to distance ourselves from uncomfortable internal experiences, such as fear, insecurity, or doubt – even if that also means distancing ourselves from what we want to achieve.
When we watch one tutorial after another, in an endless loop, we’re not prioritizing learning, but rather trying to avoid mistakes, take the first step, and eventually confront our limitations. Meanwhile, we nurture the illusion that we’ll be able to do it, without ever actually proving it.
Everything we lose when we live in “tutorial mode”
The tutorial syndrome is not harmless. In fact, living in “tutorial mode” has a profound impact on our lives.
- Creativity in captivity. Creativity doesn’t arise from following instructions, but from deviating from them. It requires trial and error, curiosity, improvisation – elements that are rarely activated when we follow the logic of “First watch ten more videos.” In fact, a study conducted at the University of Toronto revealed that overly structured environments can reduce intrinsic motivation and, consequently, our creative capacity.
- Frustration tolerance at rock bottom. Making mistakes and starting over is where we train our frustration tolerance. Tutorials, with their well-defined steps, make us skip this fundamental part of learning, so our ability to tolerate unexpected events or errors decreases drastically. In practice, it’s like training for a marathon by walking on a soft carpet. It might be comfortable, but it’s not very useful. The more we rely on tutorials, the less we train our ability to endure discomfort, to try something without guarantees, and to manage that initial clumsiness.
- Self-efficacy at rock bottom. Self – efficacy is a crucial “psychological muscle” for life, as it refers to the confidence in our abilities to successfully handle a given situation. However, when we rely too heavily on external instructions, we begin to believe that we can’t do anything without someone showing us the way. What we used to solve with logic, intuition, or creativity now seems to require an expert or guru. It’s like using GPS for everything: after a while, you no longer know how to get to your usual bakery without someone pointing the way. The same thing happens with life: if everything has a tutorial, we start to think that nothing can be improvised, we delegate excessively, and we lose confidence that we can achieve things without help.
All of this leads to paralysis. The more content we consume, the more confused we feel. Not because the information is bad, but because there’s too much of it. Every tutorial offers a different method, a different nuance, or a “This is what no one has told you.” And our brains end up exposed to 20 different ways to do something we’ve never even tried.
This saturation leads to analysis paralysis: you have so many options, so many steps, so many possible versions… that you don’t choose any. You get stuck, overwhelmed by the choice, and you end up… watching another tutorial “just to get some clarity”, but you don’t get any clarity.
How to deactivate tutorial syndrome?
This isn’t about demonizing tutorials; many are useful, instructive, and even necessary. The problem arises when they become excessive and don’t lead to real change, but rather hinder action.
Obviously, I’m not going to write a tutorial on how to escape tutorial syndrome. That would be highly contradictory. So, just start. Go for it. Even if it’s not perfect. Even if you make mistakes. Even if you have to backtrack or correct something.
Stop preparing to start and just start. Make mistakes and improve. Because that’s how you truly learn and grow.
Ultimately, the tutorial syndrome isn’t about learning; it’s about avoidance. It’s about disguising the fear of taking the plunge with endless preparation. But life – real life, not the life of videos – begins when we dare to try on our own, without scripts or pre-made steps.
References:
Joon, Y. & Zhong, C. (2017) Ideas rise from chaos: Information structure and creativity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; 138: 15-27.
Sorden, S. (2013) The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. In: In BJ Irby, G. Brown, R. Lara-Alecio, & S. Jackson (Eds.), The handbook of educational theories (pp. 155–167). IAP Information Age Publishing.
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