Reading books and answering questions on StackOverflow

JavaScript Cookbook appeared to be targeted at beginners. So, I took a break from that book and dived back into jQuery. This time, I chose Manning's "jQuery in action". Even though it is for beginners-intermediate, the writing style was good. Before introducing a selector or method, the purpose it serves, the functionality it can replace and the cross-browser issues with JavaScript implementations (if any) were discussed.

The book was divided into two parts. The first deals with Core jQuery - selectors, DOM manipulations, events, animations etc.. I have read through the chapters till events though it was like a revision. At places, I would have liked the explanation to be crisper, but it was impressive nonetheless.

After a break of 2 months, I have started answering questions on StackOverflow. Gained a lot of reputation points by answering questions on JavaScript, jQuery, Python, RegEx etc. In 3 days, my reputation has grown from 129 to 671. I used knowledge gained in JS, jQ and answering the questions made me revise some stuff and look for better explanations. The sudden overflow of n00bs who didn't even know that they have to search before asking annoyed me a bit.

I have posted quite a few programming answers. Here is some advice I gave to a guy who sounded like he was lost:

1. Don't give up. Persist. Ask for help if you don't understand something.
2. Practice deliberately. Practice, keeping in mind that you are doing stuff to get better at something.
3. Read books, biographies and autobiographies of great people will help. You will realize that there are many people who did great things after starting when they were older than you.
4. Write. At least, keep track of the things you have done, learnt.
5. Talk, if possible argue, with smart people.
6. Keep all forms of stupid entertainment to minimum. TV, chatter, browsing etc..