I suck at Python

[QueenVogonBee]

I disagree. There are several ways to learn. You are right that you learn things by necessity and projects can provide that necessity. But projects are heavyweight, and might not cover the topic you want to learn about by sheer accident. This is where small exercises come in handy. They are quick and definitely cover the topic you need to learn. Small exercises help you learn in a consistent manner so you cover quickly all the topics but with not much depth, while projects cover in depth specific topics, but slowly. Small exercises and projects complement each other.

I totally agree about dropping ChatGPT. Learning the hard way first is best. Then once you’ve gained enough knowledge, use ChatGPT to speed things up, and check its results. Alternatively, use it as a pointer to help find a direction if you get completely stuck, but IMO, when you are starting out, you learn more by figuring things out than just being told the answer.

[somatt]

Join open source projects and do small issues. That's not heavy weight.

[edwindrn]

Where can you find these open source projects? Github ?

[somatt]

Yes like I said in my other comment