I am 34 and was recently hacked if not data mined. I want to learn programming from the grass roots. Where do I start? This subject has stolen my entire focus, and I obsess a bit. Where do I begin?
Now you've chosen a language, go and find some basic tutorials. Start with 'Hello World' (as per tradition) then work your way up, make a counter, make a calculator, make a clock. Just keep on doing these basic projects.
Soon enough you'll start to get bored. You'll start finding these projects easy. You'll no longer have to look up every line of code to work out what syntax to write, you'll just get used to it. Once you get to this stage, start looking for what other people have done. Look for a basic application that someone else has created and start to work out how they made it, their programming style. Once you've worked it out, try modifying the program. Trial and Error. Try to change what the program does, try adding on new functionalities.
Finally, create a big project from scratch. Start with an idea, it can be simple but try and make it challenging. Work out how each part is going to work, how you're going to code each bit. Then just get programming.
Once your first project is done, you'll most likely have another idea, and another. You'll keep on programming new things, each project learning something new.
That (at least in my opinion) is how to learn to program.