[franciscop]

Both in programming 10+ years ago and in painting ~2 years ago did the same way; I didn't need "confidence" since for long time initially I was just playing.

Follow a bit some tutorials, then play around with code, try to make something, its ugly AF so keep trying until it's no longer horrible. Rinse and repeat.

How to know when you are "a skilled craftman"? As long as you look back 6~12 months and think "that was ugly! I'd do it differently today" you are learning (good!). Otherwise you have become a skilled craftman (also good!) or are stuck, but at least in my case it was obvious when I was actually stuck and not improving.

Note: this "playful learning" didn't work for me with learning a language (prob need a base good enough to just keep the ball rolling) nor with piano (probably because painting is satisfactory from the first stroke, but piano is only after you can actually play stuff).