Try just in time rather than just in case learning about it, then. If you think railsguides are too easy, I won't suggest railstutorial.org, even though it's unfinished, it's excellent.<p>But yeah, maybe the best way for you to learn would be start a little project, and look up things as you go. Don't forget to use gems. There's no reason to write a test harness, there's cucumber. No reason to write user login systems, there's authlogic. The list goes on.