here is a concrete suggestion (vs vague philosphizing).
Since you already know some Python, sign on to Udacity's (free) CS 212 Design of Computer Programs by Peter Norvig. It has 7 weeks worth of classes and teaches you a tonne in that time. It is a class targeted specifically at "I know some basic programming but what do I do to get to the next level?" people.
The official version of the class is over, but nothing stops you from joining today, watching the videos, doing the assignments etc.
Since one of your aims is to 'learn from great coders' this should be right up your alley since Peter is one of the best developers in the world and you can see him developing multiple programs and refining them step by step till they are gems of elegant code, and you can trawl the forums to see questions people asked and answers to them.
Once you work through the class - should take you 7 weeks if you are disciplined -and you understand all the techniques demonstrated there, you'll be in good shape to start/join an open source project in a domain of your interest.
And oh prepare to have your mind blown. Peter Norvig is one seriously good developer.
A great programmer, sure! A good developer... I don't think so :) But I'm not here to discuss semantics.
I wouldn't recommend that course at all and I would even rate it as an utter failure.
It is not aimed to people with basic programming skills. The code snippets mostly consist of complex, clever one-liners and the examples are bit unfortunate.
You just need to take a look at the forums and see the prevailing discontent. Folks who had just completed CS101 were just not able to get past the very first units. And instead of addressing this problem, they just apologized and (rightly) ranked the course under the advanced category!
He'll be better off reading PAIP. Which is an excellent, timeless book. And still the best way to learn Common Lisp IMO.
Norvig has all the potential to be an excellent teacher, but he should stay away from mentoring introductory courses.
Yeah, I just finished going through Unit 1 and I didn't feel like I was learning that much from him and his cleaver, but a bit obscure, one-liners. I'm thinking about looking at the Coursera.org courses.
Since you already know some Python, sign on to Udacity's (free) CS 212 Design of Computer Programs by Peter Norvig. It has 7 weeks worth of classes and teaches you a tonne in that time. It is a class targeted specifically at "I know some basic programming but what do I do to get to the next level?" people.
The official version of the class is over, but nothing stops you from joining today, watching the videos, doing the assignments etc.
Since one of your aims is to 'learn from great coders' this should be right up your alley since Peter is one of the best developers in the world and you can see him developing multiple programs and refining them step by step till they are gems of elegant code, and you can trawl the forums to see questions people asked and answers to them.
Once you work through the class - should take you 7 weeks if you are disciplined -and you understand all the techniques demonstrated there, you'll be in good shape to start/join an open source project in a domain of your interest.
And oh prepare to have your mind blown. Peter Norvig is one seriously good developer.
Good Luck.