Are there any online programming beginners guides NOT written

Most are written by ostensibly everyday people. Which ones are you reading? Just pick up an O'Reilly book or something similar.

>>55881558
My problem is that I learn best when I am trying to do one specific thing i.e. write one specific script and learning several little things to do it. But a lot of the guides will just throw out all this information that I don't know what to do with

>>55881580
I haven't learned a new language in quite a few years, but IIRC most O'Reilly (and similarly designed books) teach you with mini projects split across a few chapters.

But if you're just talking about the usual boilerplate up front about primitive operations, general formatting, and whatnot -- that just sort of comes with the territory. Don't get caught up on it by trying to memorize everything; once you get started with a project, things will start making a bit more sense.

Basically, don't try to memorize or even understand everything you read. Learning a language takes time and a lot of practice; many things won't make sense at first, but you'll slowly pick them up one by one (yet your list will continue to grow with more complex things).

>>55881580
I used one of these when I wanted to get started with git. It was pretty bad. Reading meme blog posts was a better help.
Same for python. Marathoning codecademy was more time efficient.

And why does these books always come with drawing of animals on the cover anyway?

>>55882319
>And why does these books always come with drawing of animals on the cover anyway?
http://animals.oreilly.com/origin-of-species/

Regarding the other stuff, to each his own, I guess. I generally like them, though. Plus, in my opinion, they publish a lot of interesting people whose stuff I want to read just because of the author.

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>>55881521
Just take a programming course at your high school. Self teaching is not for you.