I love learning stuff. Unknowingly, I followed a methodology. After learning different domains, now I call it 'zoo theory of learning'. You will know if you learnt a programming language from 'Hello World' (especially C programming language through the book by Kernighan & Ritchie). It goes like this,
- Learn individual components of the language like variables, for loop etc (like going to zoo to look at individual animals. By looking at them, you get a fair idea of animals, birds, reptiles. You won't be harmed because it is a controlled environment). Before venturing further down, you should spend as much time as available here, learning individual components, differences between different components. It is safe, because, you know, it is controlled. You write a python program, you execute it locally and see the results. The program may contain security holes, performance issues, and all other issues. But that is ok. It is local. It is safe.
- Next in step is going on a safari in a natural park. You are visiting the ecosystem. It is little more dangerous than above, but still you are with experienced guide and probably you won't die by doing stupid things. Equivalent for us? Get into an open source project and implement a module; or scratch your own itch and develop a module. Release it to the public. If you do it with Django or Flask, it is difficult to shoot yourself in the foot. May be someone will hack your program. Again, if you take help of existing modules, you should be lot more safe than you think.
- Once you get confident, go into the jungle and pitch a tent to observe the wild animals in their own eco-system. It is dangerous. But now you are an expert. You know how to safeguard yourself. Write a new framework, or start a new startup and take care of everything from design, development to marketing. Lot of risks, but you have knowledge and drive. You will survive.
Because of this method, I always look for a good tutorial that takes me from an absolute beginner level to a decent level. For learning Flask, a python framework, that tutorial would be, the The mega flask tutorial by Miguel. He takes you from writing a hello world to deployment in about 18 lessons.
I hope I have not abstracted the answer too much. BTW, I wrote about this method at my blog. You can read it there (Not much details than this answer).