I think 'doing it yourself' vs. 'search online to find a solution' are two sides of the same medal and we should be good at both things. An old friend of mine

I think 'doing it yourself' vs. 'search online to find a solution' are two sides of the same medal and we should be good at both things. An old friend of mine has a tendency to dig deep through searches and while I tend to fire a few searches and then start doing it myself. There have been many examples when he came up with something he found online, which was even better than the thing I started building. So while it contributes to my programming skills to get some practice, I think you have to find the optimum between building mediocre results yourself (using your own amount of limited time) and not being afraid to get your hands dirty (as opposed to the 'someone else has built it' attitude). In the end, both skills reinforce each other: The better you are at programming, the better you can judge a solution you find online, and the better you are at searching, the faster you can find something that is actually good.