> I run into conceptual completeness problems of the "how do I think about this?" sort much more than "how do I do this?" problems.

While I agree with you, the latter problem is particularly frustrating to encounter.

Solving the conceptual problems feel more like an exploration or a learning experience, and I rarely feel like time spent solving those problems is wasted even if it's very meandering.

Solving the "how do I do this?" problem rarely feels like more than a very isolated learning experience, and more often it feels like banging your head against a wall. Doubly-so when the documentation is obsolete and leads you in the wrong direction.

Learning the basics of media compression is interesting and worth spending time on. But I'm going to hate myself if I have to spend 6 hours figuring out how to convert a file using ffmpeg.