I see a ton of posts about "Learn X framework by making a blog" or "Make a blog from Y in 20 minute!". Is this really the best application to use as a learning platform? What are the pros and cons of writing a blog as compared to other apps?
The "blog" part isn't really what's important - what you're learning is how to make a CRUD (create, read, update, delete in a database) application which is what about 99.99999999% of the internet boils down to. Blogs are useful because they're a well known structure and can be progressively complex to build.
The best way to learn to program is to build stuff particularly a web application what better way than an obligatory blog which is something most programmers want anyway so it's a good starting point and fun.