[Kosmos]

I can't agree with deacon more! Just keep breaking things till they work.
Change small things at first, change a 5 to a 20, guess on what you think it will do, and test it. Rinse & Repeat.

I can't say enough about teaching oneself. Although, I think it would be very helpful for someone to make a blog with a series of entries as Deacon mentioned, or something similiar it still won't get you from point A to B.

For example, if there is something that you want to do with a UI, and you find an article or post on 'How To' do it, there is probably already a mod that you can download for it. So why do it over?

The fun part is doing stuff that no one has done before!