Read teslas method of signalling and treat it like you would a believer would with a Bible. Mix that in with control theory books and do your best to describe things from a control systems perspective, but more descriptive using mechanical engineering terms, not only for your sanity but to help you accurately describe the problem you face when you hit a wall and need help. It will come in handy when you eventually branch into state machines where a lot of great minds unfortunately fall flat because they lack the underlying principles to be the architect of their own original systems. Programming, give it a solid 3 months before it's not a giant question mark, and another 6 months after that and you should be able to competently learn abstractly at that point and create your own unique solutions it will only take longer than if you were a senior dev. Out of all these things, at their core is teslas method of signalling, if you can understand that from every angle, and not just literally what is written but it's implied knowledge you will be set for life. After that go into programming. I've breezed past a lot of other guys with the same amount of experience programming simply because of the control systems angle is so heavily slept on