We all have different ways of learning things. With some of us theory is a good way in to learning, for others it can only be useful as a way of making sense of what we've learned in soem other way; some of us respond to teachers, some to books, some have to manage to muddle through without either, because the teachers and the books get in the way of the way they learn.

Lots of good advice in this thread, but at the end of the day, people have to pick and choose and ignore 90% of it, because it won't apply to them. The fatal thing is to try doing it on eway, find it doesn't work, and give up. The key to pretty well everything in this life is "Try it a different way".