Actually, I don't believe that was what DHH meant. Everyone is going to write a spaghetti mess starting out. The only way to learn from that is to write more and more code(that you'll need to maintain) and teaching yourself what well designed code is and why it matters.
Definitely this. I got a BS in Computer Science and started along the path of Software Engineering while working towards my Masters. Learning some good fundamentals helps, but my code was still a mess. Writing code that you'll actually have to look at again is the best way to become a good programmer.
