IMO, one of the best ways to learn is to just start something and dive in. Pick a platform (I like Grails, but there are plenty of good ones out there), buy the corresponding book (eg, "Grails in Action" or "Teach Yourself Ruby on Rails in 21 days" or whatever) and start going through it... once you know enough to start making changes to what the book is showing you, just start an app of your own. It doesn't matter what it is, and it doesn't matter if it's any good or not, this is just a learning exercise.<p>Also, as controversial as this link was when it was posted a couple of days ago[1], I think you could do worse than reading through esr's "How To Become A Hacker" essay[2].<p>Our very own pg also has some excellent essays and articles[3] you might want to read.<p>If you're interested in getting involved in an open source project as part of your learning initiative, here's a shameless plug for what I'm working on:<p><a href="https://github.com/fogbeam/Quoddy" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/fogbeam/Quoddy</a><p><a href="https://github.com/fogbeam/Neddick" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/fogbeam/Neddick</a><p>If you're interested, clone either or both repos, and join the Google group[4] and I'll do my best to answer questions and help out.<p>All of that said, I believe that one of the defining characteristics of a good hacker is a high level of innate curiosity, a strong desire for self-motivation and self-learning, and a naturally high level of persistence and determination. Given that, a good hacker will find a way to learn to hack, whether anyone else helps or not. So, yeah, asking for advice and help here is a Good Thing, and looking for mentors is always a good idea. But, in the end, don't rely on somebody else, just dig in and do it. If you get stuck on a specific question, ask on StackOverflow, or a relevant Usenet group, or mailing list or IRC channel or whatever. But read "How to ask questions the smart way"[5] beforehand. :-)<p>[1]: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5248742" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5248742</a><p>[2]: <a href="http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html</a><p>[3]: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html</a><p>[4]: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/fogcutter-dev" rel="nofollow">http://groups.google.com/group/fogcutter-dev</a><p>[5]: <a href="http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html</a>