> how to become a genius: You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge through spaced repetition, preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired.
The statement does not deny that actually doing stuff is important - "work steadily". However, these are just empty words to someone who tries to become a genius by hitting the books first.
My advice (yes, I do see the irony here) in this age would be to postpone seeking advice or reading about a topic as long as possible. As a result, your common sense sharpens and you may even come up with fresh, creative ideas that others perhaps didn't have.
> postpone seeking advice or reading about
> a topic as long as possible
To come up with creative solutions you need to have a base for said creativity. I.e. to connect the dots in original way you need to have the dots already.
I have nor proof, but I suspect that the number of useful solutions created by people who know nothing about the field is close to zero.
Somehow I doubt one would see much further when instead of climbing onto the shoulders of giants they prefer to stay in the pit of their own ignorance.
If you hadn't come across horrible architectures you would have learned less about good ones. It would be nice if this all happened inside of one person, that's what the parent is suggesting.