I wouldn't recommend short-stacking until you can understand and play a solid deep-stack game first. I've experimented here and there with short-stacking and half-stacking with mixed results but the important part is that I really didn't learn much from it except for the ol' shove/fold routine. And to me, that's tournament silliness, not real poker. But then again, what do I know... I can't even consistently play a disciplined deep stack game myself.