Kate Ray writes:

I’ve found my experience to follow that line closely, and came up with this Recursive Recipe for Learning to Program:

1. Follow a tutorial step-by-step even if you don’t always understand what you’re doing. I like to think of Hunter S. Thompson copying the books of the Great Masters on his typewriter. You’re getting a feel for how things are done in your new language/framework. This part should be easy, if boring, because you’re just doing what you’re told. [Incline of Optimism]
2. Rebuild the thing you just made or a slight variation of it. Try not to use the tutorial too much. Realize just how little you understood of what you were doing. [Fear tugs, slowing your ascent]
3. Try to build something simple that you actually want to make. Discover that you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing. [Sea of Despair]
4. Find a new tutorial related to your new project. (Hopefully your tutorials are providing you with increasing background on the language.) Follow the steps. [Slight sense of understanding, rise in self-worth]
5. Rebuild the thing yourself. [Fear]
6. Start a new project. [Despair]
7. Repeat steps 1 through 6.

I’m a big fan of tutorials. During this process, I made an app for collecting the best tutorials recommended by programmers who’ve used them. Hopefully it will shorten the stumbling-around period before you get into the groove of learning and help you find the good stuff faster.

Best tutorials: http://teachyourselftocode.com/