The blog post is nice enough, but make sure you catch the comment from "onjibonrenat" - I got more out of that than the post itself.

agreed, here's a direct link

http://ben.casnocha.com/2010/11/how-to-draw-an-owl.html#comm...

The funny thing is that the better you become the more critical you will be, because you will have mastery and you will be able to detail all of the imperfections that before you couldn't even notice. And you will have the weight of all that training and all that anticipation on your back and you will be all the more hesitant to declare anything short of absolute perfect to be good.

Ben even posted the comment as a separate blog post. (Also, the Disqus anchor link often doesn't work.)

The 30 Steps to Mastery

http://ben.casnocha.com/2010/11/the-30-steps-to-mastery.html

Side note: if you really want to draw that fucking owl I recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards. It's a book about drawing (no surprise) that goes deeper than just the mechanics of drawing, so it's also fun to read.

I recommend a pencil, it's more useful than trying to etch out a drawing with a book... however I do like that people aren't suggesting art classes to learn drawing.

I'm a self-taught writer and I think my biggest selling point is my personal voice in my work. I don't think you'd learn a personal style in artistry without brute forcing. I also think brute forcing your way to being talented is going to give you the ability to brute force your way through a block.

another great recommendation are andrew loomis' books on drawring. very detailed and technical approach. (and they are free!)

http://www.placidchaos.com/AM/index.php/2006/02/21/andrew_lo...

It looks like a Great Horned Owl, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Horned_Owl. They usually just sit and stare at you so drawing them should not be too much of a problem.

Something I have to remind myself often when starting a new hobby. I have a taste for RL projects but lack the experience in most areas so often the initial iterations suck.

This blog post reminds of an article I read a few years back, 2007 I think, in the Harvard Business Review called, The Making of an Expert. The article stipulates that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a particular field. It also stated that having a mentor increased the probably of actually becoming an expert significantly.

An essay written by Kathy Sierra a couple of years ago cites some research along those lines:

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/0...

Every time I get despondent about new skills (which obviously are long term plans) I re-read that and say, yes, time to practice, and time to practice deliberately! Sometimes I wonder that if you can't enjoy the work to get to the end goal then what's the point, so I try to find ways to enjoy the practice, and usually do.

I, unfortunately, often fall into the first category. :(

no, there is no category. this might as well be "how to build a python app"

    1. print "hello, world!"  
    2. finish your program

the point is that there's a lot missing between the two, but we often present the progression between the two stages as monotonic (even/especially in documentation or instruction manuals or coursework!), but it's usually much more nuanced (even for 'experts')

It's modern art.

How to make a rails app (back when scaffolding was wiz-bang):

1)

rails blog

script/generate scaffold Post

script/server

http://localhost:3000

Look at your pretty blogging engine

2)

Delete all the generated code and write an actual blog engine.