I'm with mechanical_fish on this one. I am far from being a "true" hacker but I've learned along the way that programming (hacking) can really only be refined through practice.
Believe me, I used to think that reading books/tutorials/articles made me a better programmer, but, honestly, building something is the best way to learn.
As for steps, I'd say go in this order:
1. Do some (quick) research about some languages you're interested in.
2. Decide on the language that is most intriguing to you and that you think you'd stick with.
3. Find an idea for an app that will be useful to you. Be sure to set the goal of your first app properly-don't try to take on too much (mathetica clone) or too little (Hello World) with it.
4. Build the darn thing. This is the point where you'd start looking up tutorials/etc in order to figure out how you'll actually do things with the language.
Believe me, I used to think that reading books/tutorials/articles made me a better programmer, but, honestly, building something is the best way to learn.
As for steps, I'd say go in this order:
1. Do some (quick) research about some languages you're interested in.
2. Decide on the language that is most intriguing to you and that you think you'd stick with.
3. Find an idea for an app that will be useful to you. Be sure to set the goal of your first app properly-don't try to take on too much (mathetica clone) or too little (Hello World) with it.
4. Build the darn thing. This is the point where you'd start looking up tutorials/etc in order to figure out how you'll actually do things with the language.