Time spent writing vs. learning

[The Great]

I've noticed that it is interesting to learn how to write programs, but the real satisfaction comes from actually writing them.

When learning programming, how often should you/did you take a break from learning so that you could write some programs for fun?

[thbp]

actually i think if your smart enough (i'm learning rite now (actually just stated again on C++ (complete noob again))) is that you can actually make usefull or "fun" programs as you go like for a wile i made a random "rude" name generater dpending on i can't rem the thing that chose the if else