I learned piano in a similar way. It was a lot of fun, and allows me to play some songs passably, but I still feel hobbled by not knowing certain basic techniques that I would have learned sooner in a more conventional set of lessons. Maybe it comes after the "project" type learning, but at some point, to move up, you have to learn the boring basics.
Agreed! I'm also a pianist, but because I started young, I was lucky that my parents and teacher forced to me practice technique all the time. You should check out the Liszt exercises, they will make you strong and fast: http://books.google.com/books/about/Liszt_Technical_Exercise...
With coding, there was no such outside pressure, so until I joined Yipit, I had tons of bad, hacky habits. In order to get to the next level, I had to rebuild from the ground up and learn the fundamentals really well.
I agree with this. I think the hardest part of learning a new skill is starting out. Working on a concrete problem provides a positive feedback loop that keeps you engaged, learning, and moving foreword. But that doesn't mean you should skip fundamentals.
For coding you could hammer out a project, get familiar with a language and the technologies you used to implement it, then download a Stanford lecture on proper Programming Methodology.
