[wging]

You need to have a pretty decent handle on the language before a lot of it will make sense.

While that's true, I think a learner may need more to aspire to (whether to write it, or just understand it) than just the next line of 'Learn You a Haskell'.

And there's also the fill-in-the-blanks phenomenon: you see a bit of code and have no idea what it does, but later on when you start to learn the underlying idea behind that code it may help solidify your understanding.

This is also a good way to learn math: rather than a strict progression of incremental steps, it's good sometimes to beat your head against something that's way above your level. Even if it seems like you're doing nothing, you're actually creating a space in your head where this knowledge can go, if I can be forgiven that metaphor.

[tmhedberg]

Agreed. LYAH is fantastic for forming a conceptual foundation, but if there's one thing it lacks, it's exercises, so it's definitely a good idea to supplement it with something more focused on writing actual code. Write Yourself a Scheme is good for that purpose, as is Real World Haskell.