I've always wanted to learn programming and Linux.

I've been programming in multiple languages for probably 4 years now. Last year in school, I took AP Computer Science and it made me feel like a boss at programming. I went in there already knowing Java pretty well, so, combined with the fact that I was teaching myself (as in, skimming PowerPoints, because I wasn't in an "official" class), I was always ahead of the rest of my classmates. They'd be working on something until Friday, and I would have it done Tuesday or Wednesday. When I was constrained within the already installed libraries, I felt like I could actually program. However, when I left my comfort zone, I was completely lost.

I don't know how to make an Android app. I look at the tutorials and it's Brainfuck to me. I look at how to solve a task, and there's people suggestions on Stack Overflow where I maybe understand a few words that they're saying. I spent so much of my time basically sitting inside these stupid easy libraries and environments (Pygame, native stuff, PRAW), that I don't feel like I "know" how to program. I know how to do some basic things, but if I try to make anything worth while, I don't even know where to begin.

I feel the same way with Linux. I'll go to fix a problem, and the solution looks like the guy took some keywords and then just started bashing his face against the keyboard. On top of that, they know this stuff off the top of their head. Like, "Oh, you're getting this error? You're missing this library. Install it with 'sudo apt-get install lksdkljdfs', then run this, this, this, and this command to get it working." Like, I understand what the terminal does. I understand some of the basic stuff, but anything else is like putting a kid studying multiplication tables in an accelerated calculus course.

So, I guess I want to learn more than the basics of Linux and programming. I want to be one of those dudes that can just pull a really complex solution out of his ass like it was adding 2 and 2 to get 5.