BilalShaikh

I've been working pretty closely with Optimizely for the last year or so. I would go ahead and say its difficult/impossible to realize the advertised effect of their product. Can't speak to this one directly though.

I think leaving a store because you forgot your wallet is an edge case that only an extremely small percentage of bounces would relate to. I agree pop-ups are annoying, but I think its important to remember that HN users aren't necessarily the customers every business out there is targeting.

please consider time zones.

I was in your shoes not too long ago. Blogs and books are great, but in the end you should learn by doing.

You were probably looking for a more concrete source of some sort, but in my experience no books/blogs will teach you how to come up with original UX/UI design.

Its not the easiest task in the world by any means, but come up with a project (a website of some sort), and learn how to build it from the ground up.

Once you're done you'll have the skills you need to get a job in the field, and you'll be able to show employers your work to prove your qualified.

I am a 20-something amateur though

In due time web address conventions will move away from common TLDs. Why would you go to http://news.ycombinator.com when they can just go to http://news.ycombinator? Until then its not a bad thing to be creative with whats available.

Resourceful? Maybe. Amateurish? Maybe not.