Good comment! I couldn't have said it better myself. This is the way I learn new stuff. If coding wasn't "scary" every now and then, I wouldn't have learned anything!
Most of all, I'd say MOTIVATION is an important factor. I'm guessing very few programmers, experienced or not, sit all their time off from work/school programming and/or always have that "oooh-I-want-to-go-home-and-start-up-a-long-session-of-<insert programming language>" all the time. At least _I_ need some motivation and inspiration every now and then. I go to a lot of live programming forums and also watch a lot of youtube programming/presentation videos just to get inspiration and to get my motivation up. Often these events are way out of my field of programming, but I still go, because I always feel good and full of spirit when leaving.
This goes for me personally, of course, but may be a good advice for you too.
Having put this from my point of view, I would love to get some advice on where to get started on open source projects or the like, where I can get smaller tasks to complete. (I think that that Chrome thing that was mentioned in the start of this thread might be out of my league, but I'll give it a try.)
Most of all, I'd say MOTIVATION is an important factor. I'm guessing very few programmers, experienced or not, sit all their time off from work/school programming and/or always have that "oooh-I-want-to-go-home-and-start-up-a-long-session-of-<insert programming language>" all the time. At least _I_ need some motivation and inspiration every now and then. I go to a lot of live programming forums and also watch a lot of youtube programming/presentation videos just to get inspiration and to get my motivation up. Often these events are way out of my field of programming, but I still go, because I always feel good and full of spirit when leaving. This goes for me personally, of course, but may be a good advice for you too.
Having put this from my point of view, I would love to get some advice on where to get started on open source projects or the like, where I can get smaller tasks to complete. (I think that that Chrome thing that was mentioned in the start of this thread might be out of my league, but I'll give it a try.)