Taking it a step further, if you're able to find a friend or a willing mentor, pair program for a couple sessions to get the flow of things. You'll get into it quicker, will be able to ask complex questions and get solid answers, and probably have some fun along the way.
And both the easiest and hardest way to learn a language or framework is to put yourself (or have someone else put you) up against a deadline. Urgency is a good thing.
Don't sweat the nitty-gritty when you're just starting out. You'll get to that stuff when you need to. You can always refactor in better code. And that refactoring will encourage you by showing how much better you've gotten.
EDIT: Meant to mention the great http://railscasts.com. Together with the pairing I mentioned above, RC really got me up to speed on Ruby / Rails - came from a generalist C#/PHP/JS background a few years back.
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Totally.
Taking it a step further, if you're able to find a friend or a willing mentor, pair program for a couple sessions to get the flow of things. You'll get into it quicker, will be able to ask complex questions and get solid answers, and probably have some fun along the way.
And both the easiest and hardest way to learn a language or framework is to put yourself (or have someone else put you) up against a deadline. Urgency is a good thing.
Don't sweat the nitty-gritty when you're just starting out. You'll get to that stuff when you need to. You can always refactor in better code. And that refactoring will encourage you by showing how much better you've gotten.
EDIT: Meant to mention the great http://railscasts.com. Together with the pairing I mentioned above, RC really got me up to speed on Ruby / Rails - came from a generalist C#/PHP/JS background a few years back.