[thereddestruby]

To answer your questions:

1) The same way a programmer learned to program.

2) Yes. As practice, draw from real life everyday.

3) If you want.

4) If you want.

5) I recommend reading Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the brain, Don't Make Me Think, and Design of Everyday Things to start.

6) Whatever you feel works best for you.

[tianyicui]

If I'll learn design the same way I learn programming. Personally, I learned a lot from participating programming contests such as ACM/ICPC and TopCoder. Learning from and taking part in open source projects also give me a lot. Are there equivalences for graphic design? Thanks.

[thereddestruby]

There's plenty of forums and design contests. http://www.drawar.com/crits/design is an ok place to start. I'm sure there's more.

It's going to come down to practice, like everything else.