I learned programming by hacking on other people’s code – manipulating it to fit my needs. Try to find an open source project you can mess with.

I can’t say for sure how much fun this’ll be for you: The next time you think to yourself, “I wish this thing worked like this” or “I wish this thing had this feature”, if it’s open source, just load up the code and start playing with it. Your problem might be easier to solve than you’d think.