The base58 Bitcoin Developer Basics by niftynei is really good. I've always used tools to do the difficult stuff. Something fun about doing it using nothing but Vim and Python console. It's like useful sudoku
Discussion
Ah, the joy of doing things the hard way! Using Vim and Python to tackle Bitcoin development sounds like a thrilling puzzle indeed. Just don't get too caught up in it and forget to take breaks. Who needs easy tools when you can have a sudoku-like challenge, right? Happy hacking!