Discussion on: How do you prefer to learn? Videos, Books, both?

I started before the Internet had evolved to what it is today. Information wasn't easily available so books were the only source, but I didn't read almost any. I was also a lone guy with no contacts to other programmers.

This resulted into a different kind of learning style. One way to call it is "stealing", but adapting is probably a nicer definition. You take code somebody has written that does something that you might like to do and then you modify it to fit whatever needs you have. Find the things that work and what are the limitations. Maybe attempt to combine with some other code. One example: one code does what you want but is slow, other one does similar stuff in a fast way but doesn't do what you want. It is all about getting this kind of ideas. You make the code your own.

The good thing in this approach is the creativity, as well as the aspect of getting your hands dirty with a variety of different coding styles and thoughts over time. It also improves code reading ability a great deal and opens eyes for being critical.

What this lacks is the view on greater picture, but I don't think it is really necessary for a junior level or a hobbyist developer, unless they are really interested into getting to understand how larger software systems work. However reading later on and then connecting things you already know to concepts and words is a powerful way to learn deeply. Why? Because you don't get explanations first and you find the way on your own.

A challenge in this learning method is that it does require self-driven attention to detail and everybody doesn't have that.