This is really interesting to me. I used to do the strategy the author illustrates: follow along with tutorials and google when something doesn't work.

It didn't work for me at all. I found myself having gone through many, many tutorials (video and text) only to remember none of it when I came back to the subject months or years later. I never had any understanding because I was always following along and just googling when I ran into snags.

These days I do the complete opposite. I try to learn as much as I can. I never follow along with the learning material. Instead, I go through a section, taking notes, and then try to recreate it all from memory. Rather than focusing on what I need to know right now, I've learned to appreciate all of the little details. I try to do as much as I can with pencils and paper because it's slower, which forces me to spend more time with the information.

Indeed, I am very jealous of the author. It took me years before I learned how I learn. I wish that I was smart enough to use the author's strategy. Instead I found myself not knowing how any of my stuff worked, running into hours of frustration whenever I ran into a problem or a bug that StackOverflow couldn't answer. So if you've used the author's strategy and it didn't work, don't worry! We're not all geniuses! You will find out how you learn if you keep trying different things.