What next? Life after novice-dom

Hi guys,

I have been learning Python for a few months now by running over several tutorials and going through a couple of books (Hetland/PyHardWay). I also did the Udacity Python course.

The thing is I'm wondering how to climb the next rung on the ladder. Suggestions I have seen so far have been to join a project and contribute, write my own apps and experiment, pay for an intermediary course and respond to forum posts.

All seem like great ideas, but....

a) I have looked at various projects and the code seems very much evolved compared to the level I am at now. It's a big jump up in code understanding to join in.

b) I've written quite a few apps of my own and have no idea if the coding quality is sufficient, though the apps do work as they should which I undertsand is the first step. I am programming apps with graphics libraries etc.

c) Intermediary courses seem to suffer the same way as projects do - there are courses teaching basics, and then courses that are very advanced and nothing in between.

So, where do I go from here. How do I learn more advanced practical uses of classes and improve my programming techniques? How do I bridge the gap between being a novice and more professional development?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.