[kyllo]

I agree, with the qualifier that the "need" can be something that you made up.

Like you, I started learning programming after college, and I worked through courses, books, lecture slides, tutorials, read library docs, etc. but I learn the most at times when I actually sit down and go through the whole process of designing and building a complete application that does something useful. This year I've made it a goal to write code every day, with the intention of this culminating in launching at least one complete web application this year as a side business for extra income. I have a couple of solid ideas that I think I can build (and sell), but the only way to learn how to build something is by trying to build it.

Tutorials and courses are great and are necessary up front, but your fingers really need to be typing code that is generated by your brain, often, in order for it to stick.

[djblue2009]

completely agree. Also, learning to read documentation is such an invaluable skill. Just doing tutorials removes the need to figure out how to find things yourself. Until you try to build something that requires you to go beyond what you've learned in those tutorials, you won't learn how to read the docs.