[itsjaredc]

That process of drinking the soup and learning what to swallow and what to spit out is an incredible learning experience. That is a skill and comes from trial and error, reading everything, and trying things. And you are training yourself in that process and mindset of learning on your own.

Agree though that learning best practices is difficult without some guidance and working with others.

[freshhawk]

I agree, I think it's an absolutely necessary learning experience.

Just not at the beginning.

Maybe that's because I'm a CS major and have dealt with so many smart people who's learning paths were derailed by the self taught plan advocated here. They found a local maxima (in my experience it's often procedural php or eclipse driven java) and won't move off of it because it seems impossible and the benefit is intangible and by definition difficult for them to understand. Pretty perfectly described by PG's Blub Paradox essay.

There's a reason the "standing on the shoulders of giants" metaphor is so prevalent in the programming world.