I have been playing with PHP for probably 3-4 years now. I say playing because that really and truly is all I do. I started with PHP because several projects in school required a web front end and I was given the option of Java or PHP. I would rather stab myself in the forehead than use Java. That’s beside the point. Your right though, it’s very hard to know “everything” about PHP. The API is ridiculously large. CodeIgniter and MVC are not very difficult once you understand a few basic things. If you need help with any of the basic ideas, I’m sure anyone around here would be happy to explain or help you out. As far as, how do people come up with the creative ideas and such.. practice/experience. Nobody starts in PHP/CodeIgniter knowing “everything”. I’m no expert, but most of the stuff I know comes from helping others, reading the questions/solutions from others, and just building stuff myself. I don’t have clients, I dabble in PHP and such just because, well, I guess I’m a dork and I think it’s fun 😊 It could just be me, but I always find the best way to learn something, is to do it. If I wanna know how to do something, I start trying to code it myself. If I have questions along the way, I come here. If I think there may be a better way to accomplish something, I come here and get advice and get feedback from others. Don’t be afraid to ask questions around the forum, just make sure you put some effort into trying to find the answer yourself first. It gets aggravating when someone comes in here just looking for someone to give them code or do something for them and its obvious they havent tried at all.
Good luck.