To expand on your first statement, it&#x27;s helpful to have a project you are interested in using once its operational. Learning something for its own sake isn&#x27;t very motivating.  But if learning the skill allows me to do something I am truly interested in, then the learning is just one of the steps in the process, and you have a much more directed approach.<p>It&#x27;s the difference between &quot;figure out how to use websockets&quot; vs &quot;build a temperature controller for a smoker that is accessible from a webpage, using websockets&quot;.