To build apps... the best way by far in my experience has been to simply find an objective app and to build it. What you need to develop as an app developer is

To build apps... the best way by far in my experience has been to simply find an objective app and to build it. What you need to develop as an app developer is an intuition about how to structure your project for it's long term goals, and you don't get that intuition by following tutorials telling you the right way to do it. It's developed by using the wrong patterns hitting face against the wall over and over again. You mention websites and apps, so of coarse you'll want to focus on JavaScript in the beginning as it's a good enough language and the only language that allows building both decent websites and apps, unless you want to use some sort of transpiler to JS, which is probably too much infrastructure in the beginning. Don't ignore software development practices, but IMO in the beginning: 1. Find a problem you want to solve. This could be an already solved problem, like a Todo app. It can be more motivating if you have a problem that doesn't have an existing solution though, but will require more creativity and design on your part. 2. Learn as little is possible to get things working, and keep on adding features. When you add features, you'll notice that some of your earlier decisions make new features harder or easier to implement. This is when it's a good time to research development patterns, because you have a very practical example of why the patterns are important. 3. Do not be afraid to re-write significant portions, or throw away code. Thinking of different ways to write you project and re-writing will give you a great intuition for evaluating frameworks (code libraries that define the architecture by which you write your code) and even writing your own. 4. In the beginning, prefer to use lower level tools (avoid to many frameworks or libraries). As you build bigger apps, you'll start to appreciate the value of the frameworks and understated where they're appropriate. The only other thing I would say is to find a mentor. When run up against issues in your projects, it can be hard to discover the patterns you need to fix it, and a mentor can save you a ton of time. Good luck!