You bring up an interesting point - I was a "pull" programmer up until I went to university and took a Java course. I learnt there object oriented programming,

You bring up an interesting point - I was a "pull" programmer up until I went to university and took a Java course. I learnt there object oriented programming, and suddenly everything I had learnt previously "clicked" and I saw the big picture, and I'm a much better programmer for it. You could make a comparison to music. The self-taught guitarist versus the classically trained guitarist, and the guitarist somewhere in between. When I took guitar lessons I wasn't taught classically, but I was taught the concepts (the theory behind chords, scales, etc.) and I was also encouraged to pick things up on my own by both playing around and finding tabs for my favourite songs and having a go. This push vs pull concept can probably be applied to ways of learning in general. I think it's safe to say most people here are agreeing a mixture is best.