[zsmi]

> If someone asked you the best way to become a good mechanical engineer, I bet you’d tell them to start building something.

Actually, I would ask them to be more specific.

And the more specific they can describe the goal the more likely they are to achieve it. The field of mechanical engineering is huge and this is the same for programming.

Is the op looking to make web pages, do FEM simulation (since they're an ME), embedded programming for robotics, etc. etc.

Each one of those is going to have a different path.