I honestly wish someone told me how the vast majority of "advice" and vehement beliefs on programming/gamedev/whatever is total ****.
As a newbie, you don't know the difference between the good and bad. You don't know what you don't know, so you don't know who is right and who is clueless.
Then later you discover the majority of what you thought was important, turns out to be nerds arguing over irrelevant topics that barely have any actual relevance in making video games.
One example is the perpetuated myth on StackExchange and other websites which claim that in gamedev, arrays are the only true answer and everything else sucks: especially maps, linked lists, and (something else I forgot that they consistently demonized).
As a newbie, you assume these high rep users know their stuff. You are already overwhelmed with so much learning, knowledge, and confusion. It's interesting to say the least when you discover that it turned out many of them are just raging idiots who insist on making huge deals out of nothing. Like any fanboy, they don't rely on pragmatic perspectives on teaching or a balanced view of things. Instead they are just vehemently opposed to doing game programming any way than they way they believe. No different than the engine fanboys, console fanboys, Valve fanboys, C++ fanboys, etc. etc.
It's also interesting to discover that many gamers who claim to know how games work on the inside, turn out to have been more ignorant than you even when you believed them to be a wise superior in argument.
This is just one example. My point is this:
Just like with any subject on the internet, 99% of what exists is just clutter. As a newbie, it is very difficult to differentiate that 99% clutter with the 1% nuggets of truth. High reputation users or popular opinion can really help exaggerate problems, create them from thin air making you worry, and overall make you think it'll be harder than not.
When I finally stopped "Looking for the perfect engine" and realized what I needed to do was to develop actual skills and just get to work, then it all became so clear.
Even more revealing was how backwards the advice/complaints you hear are. I still see this to this day. Perhaps my entire worldview is inverted and I am an exception, but I seriously doubt that.
What people say is so incredibly difficult, impossible, or requires AAA sized team/budget- turns out to be incredibly feasible, very easy, or at least easy enough to accomplish with time. What people made out to be a large boss to defeat, turned out to be mediocre goblins that you roflstomp.
What people never talk about turns out to be what is ACTUALLY difficult. You heard a few people every now and then complain/advise right before they were brushed under the rug by the louder voices. You forget they even said it as you fall for the common myths or vehement opinions and trail off in the wrong direction with the wrong perspective. Like a boss who was stealthed the entire time or a master of illusion you couldn't see until you got to a higher level in gamedev.