Programming is about solving problems and communication, not writing lots of code.
Code is just a necessity, you should usually try to write less code, not more.

If you don't know where to start, maybe you just don't have any problems!

Look at Linux and other Unix-like systems: they all consist of many small applications that [do only one thing, but do it well][1].

When I needed a script to find 10 largest files in a folder on my computer, I wasn't reading books. I just googled and used one of the existing solutions.
Did I write any code? - No.
Is problem solved? - Yes.
Is this one-line program useful? - Heck yes.

Programs with thousands of lines of code are usually written by more than one programmer. You won't be able to write whole operating systems alone and you don't need to. They also often use cheats like [version control][2] and [unit testing][3].

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_way
  [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control
  [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_testing