i learn best by seeing many examples of the task i'm trying to do. sometimes i can work things out on my own but increase the complexity of the task and i'm more "reliant" on examples. i don't see this as a problem. but i also think that someone with skills in Internet can figure out how to research reasonably well and actually learn things.

i suppose i was left to myself pretty often as a kid as well, and my dad would ask me if i knew what stuff meant and then when i asked him "what?" he would tell me to look it up myself and laugh, so maybe i developed some methods early.