I liked the article. The thing with trying to learn a language from a non developer I struggle with is 'what is knowing'. I know this might sound vague but I'm trying to say how do you know when to move on to the next topic? In syntax is after you can read and understand it, or after you memorized it, or is it after you done some tutorials/examples successfully? In my mind its when I understand the when to use it, and how to use it in at least an example. This doesn't always hold up but I would be interested into your thoughts.