The Desert of Despair

Using this (http://www.vikingcodeschool.com/posts/why-learning-to-code-is-so-damn-hard) as a guide, I now realise I've entered the 'Desert of Despair' stage of this journey.
Thanks to the design of the Odin Project, I jumped off the 'Cliff of Confusion' a couple of months ago. The Odin Project has students designing programs from scratch at an early stage, interleaving 'hand-holding' tutorials to teach new tools.

What does the landscape look like in this desert?

Dwindling level appropriate (i.e. intermediate) tutorials.
If you are creating something original, it is hard to identify where exactly to go next.

How does one escape? Only by putting one foot in front of the other and sending out occasional SOS signals.

Trying to jump straight into developing a web app (beyond the basic blogger sort) proved too much at this stage. The lesson was valuable though.

I realised I need to learn more about I/O operations, databases and APIs among other things. As all these are dealt with in the Odin Project I also realised that I may as well complete the Odin Project. Whether or not I use Ruby on Rails in the future, the lessons I learn about development will be applicable to other frameworks.

So, at the moment, I'm moving forward with Ruby and making occasional forays into the FreeCodeCamp to keep my Javascript fresh. I'm also continuing with Python both for fun and to be of more use at the CoderDojos where Python is the most common language used.

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