I'd add to this. I think to really learn programming, you have to have a specific goal of something to build. This gives purpose and direction to your learning.

I'd add to this. I think to really learn programming, you have to have a specific goal of something to build. This gives purpose and direction to your learning. Not many people can learn much by playing around with basic syntax - adding, subtracting, if-elseing, text input and output - and trying to wade through vast standard libraries and ecosystems of third-party libraries without a goal in mind that they have some motivation to reach. You gotta decide on something to build. It doesn't have to be anything big and fancy, or something that a company or user would pay for. Could be just automating a task that you have to perform a lot, or just something that you think would be cool. And of course it has to make sense to perform with the platform that you're learning. You don't want to try and build a web app with assembly, for example. But you could get some kind of microcontroller that you can program in assembly and try to automate some electronics stuff around the house or something like that. Doesn't matter if there's an easier way to do it or not, it just matters that you built it and you figured out how to do it.