For me, nothing really clicked until I actually started working on something that was meaningful to me. Before that, I tried every book I could find, religious

For me, nothing really clicked until I actually started working on something that was meaningful to me. Before that, I tried every book I could find, religiously watched the latest Railscasts, Peepcode screencasts, etc. and watched every free tutorial out there. Until I started working on something that I needed and just plowed through it until it was built, nothing truly clicked. It also helped that I locked myself in my attic for three weekends straight to get my first "real" project done - setting aside that kind of time to focus is huge... Just pick a small-ish project that is personally relevant and hack your way through it until it's reasonably functional. Also pick a language that is fairly simple and readable (I chose Ruby, but there are lots of good options) and a problem that isn't too difficult at first (e.g., a straightforward CRUD app will build confidence before moving on to bigger and better). Also, you'll see a ton of recommendations for the "next big thing" (e.g., Node.js) on sites like HN and you'll be tempted to run from one new language or framework to the next. Try to avoid that if possible. I think the key is just picking anything that can get you as close as possible to solving the problem you're trying to solve. Later on you can worry about finding the ideal tool for the job. I should note that I'm not a pro developer by any means, but I can hack together prototypes and simple apps fairly quickly coming from a similar background to you, and this is the way I went about it...