The problem here is stated in your first sentence: "I'm not a programmer." A lot, if not all of this, just kind of "clicks" if you've already worked with somet

The problem here is stated in your first sentence: "I'm not a programmer." A lot, if not all of this, just kind of "clicks" if you've already worked with something similar in some shape or form in the past. Things I'd mark off your list as it isn't Rails specific (You came from PHP, right? None of this should be new if you've built a modern web app): - HTML - CSS - Javascript/JQuery Things I'd mark off your list as it's Ruby specific (PHP was built for the web, but you can run things in isolation if you want. You want to learn Rails, need to learn Ruby - It's just modular in this setup.): - Ruby - ERB Syntax (It's just Ruby inside an HTML file wrapped in <% %>, there's nothing really special here) - Gem Management (gem install my_gem isn't hard and is second nature for anyone who knows Ruby) - Bundler (Make a Gemfile, type gem 'my_gem' - Done) Things that are left: - Rails Philosophy - Rails Commands - ActiveRecord - Rake (Not Rails specific - Just you there are rails specific tasks) - Routing - Deployment Those 6 (5 if you don't count Rake as it's pretty common in a lot of Ruby projects) can be knocked out in the first few chapters of Agile Web Development with Rails(http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-r...). Some things will take practice before getting used to, but for the most part things should be making sense after playing around with it for a few days. I think the issue here is you're jumping into RoR without a lot of background knowledge that is there for anyone who has dealt with something similar. You're tackling a lot of different things at once so it's overwhelming. Learn things in steps and you'll be all set, don't bite off more than you can chew. Good luck!