[drol3]

Huge fan of this kind of thinking.

I try to recommend this technique with software all the time. Basically instead of the workflow bring this

1) follow some tutorial online 2) integrate into real work

I do

1) follow some tutorial online 2) spend an hour to see how I can break it 3) integrate into real work

That step two does all sorts of wonderful things like helping you understand failure modes, better understand quality, make it easier to debug. You get the same knowledge over time by doing "real work", but it is much much more efficient this way :)