Ask HN: How can I get to the next level in Rails/Ruby?

Over the past 6 months I taught myself Rails/Ruby. This is my first programming language. I have been through most of the books, and I think I've done every tutorial, including the excellent one by Michael Hartl. I was even able to build a project for myself.

But I still feel like I'm missing something. Following a tutorial is very different than actually solving problems with code. I get stuck when I try to do something that I haven't seen before in a book or tutorial. How can I get to the next level and start solving problems on my own?