Its always an exhilerating experience to learn somthing new.

For me the method always follows the following general steps:
1. I hear about the subject. There is curiosity about this topic. So I go out looking for some way to get information about it.
2. I find out books. Buy them whenever possible. Start reading books and get a overview of what I am trying to learn.
3. I then try to get a valid setup on my PC to do some real work - getting my hands dirty.
4. While reading the literature, I keep trying small things here and there to figure out what the book is saying.
5. Then there is a stage where I am completely bored of reading the book and go about actually creating a small app that uses whatever knowledge I have.
6. Now that I have written a very basic (barely one step above a "Hello World") sort of program, I am mightily pleased with myself. I know that this is just too basec to be contented, but I am giving some form of visible results.
7. Continue reading and learning. This is the part of the learning process that is the longest and the most boring ...
8. Eventually I start realizing that the literature that I am reading isnt giving every sigle nook and cranny of the topic. How do I find this out? Because of mistakes that I make while trying my hand out at creating apps based on that technology.
9. I have completed the books. now comes the stage where I am itching to use this new found technology on some real world examples. Getting an idea is hard!
10. I start actually creating valid examples - fully written by myself. No Wizards, nothing... Now I realize that there are some things that arent quite clear in my mind... "<such-and-such thing should be there... I would have implemented it myself if I were the designer.. why isnt it there. what is the logic behind this being there or not being there".. I look it up and find it!
11. Here is where I start reading someone else's examples and see defferences in coding styles and design ideas. (Here is where I am right now - Reading someone else's FS code) I start realizing even more ideas that should be there and realize the obviousness of their existance. It is at this point that I start realizing that I am being able to think like the original creators of the technology. I am mightily pleased now, because the creators of the technology usually are GURUs!
12. Then I start getting independant ideas which quite nicely extend existing technologies... And here is where I stay till I reach guru status myself! :-D

Whoa.. I just documented and overview of my learning process.