For basic motivation and direction, try Don Lancaster's site and books.
Reading programs is just as important to the budding (and expert) hacker as writing them. As goofy as it sounds, I found lots of inspiration trying to convert BASIC game programs (as in Ahl's 101 Computer Games) to Python. First time through try to get it to run. Then try to get it to work with fewer lines. Then add some features. You'll be surprised how much you learn.
Comments
For basic motivation and direction, try Don Lancaster's site and books.
Reading programs is just as important to the budding (and expert) hacker as writing them. As goofy as it sounds, I found lots of inspiration trying to convert BASIC game programs (as in Ahl's 101 Computer Games) to Python. First time through try to get it to run. Then try to get it to work with fewer lines. Then add some features. You'll be surprised how much you learn.
Good luck.