After watching 100s of hours of tutorial videos I realize there has to be a better way. Anyone car to share their best strategies, tips, books, podcasts, etc for really learning and retaining new Houdini knowledge?

I've also watched a LOT of tutorials on SideFX, Lynda, Pluralsight, Vimeo, YouTube both paid and free.

By far the best way I've found is by having to create a project in Houdini.
I've been working on a single project for over a year now, as well as other less intense projects.

Moin,

not sure how serious the question is meant - I mean, obviously you can only learn something if you practise it, not from watching tutorials. That goes for Houdini via pizza baking to dealing with your spouse. That's so fundamental that I somehow cannot really follow the question:
Tutorials and books and, of course, mestela's world famous cgwiki, that you probably learnt by heart by now, just for *understanding* things better, not for “learning” them.

You learn a language by speaking it, listening, trying to understand, making mistakes, correcting your mistakes.
You use a dictionary or a grammar book to check for specific details that you are unclear about or to get inspirations for idioms you didn't know before.

You learn Houdini by using it, disecting other people's work (sample files), trying to understand, making mistakes, correcting your mistakes.
You use tutorials, books and whatsnots to check for specific details that you are unclear about or to get inspirations for tricks or effects you didn't know before.

That said: There does not seem to be a golden rule for tutorials/books etc. What works for the one is completely useless for the other. I personally found Mr. Moncrief's “easy-peasy” introductions helpful, but I also loved Dan Ablan's work on other platforms, obviously both aren't everybody's favorites and for sure you don't learn the “nuts and bolts” by following some loose, simplified projects.

I would love to know what specifically you are looking for in tutorials, written articles, maybe podcasts, because MAKING those is a hobby for me that I would love to extend.

Marc

Thanks for the helpful responses!

Other than the cg garage podcast, not aware of any other podcasts that are really relevant.

Something along the lines of fxguide but on a weekly basis and focusing primarily on houdini use in recent films, artist interviews, techniques, ect.

Gridmarket has an amazing featured artist series. A podcast version of this would be amazing!