So, I guess the idea is to let everyone do what they want, stop providing any guidance as no one's advice is any better than anyone elses? Sorry. I don't think that washes completely.
I made a ton of mistakes when I first started. Killed a VERY large number of trees, including a $400 piece of stock (I would have given my first born not to have had to explain to my wife that I managed to kill it by overwatering). Yeah, I learned the "hard" way. This was, however, before I had the technology to instantly query experts around the globe on what to do and wehre I might be goign wrong.
I began taking advice from local collectors (and not disregarding experience as showing off
), I also sought advice from people like Vance Wood online as the Internet rose. I dug some trees, lost some very nice ones that--had I had someone to help me out-- I shouldn't ten or twenty decades to become what they were. They haunt me still.
The school of hard knocks is a great teacher. It can also be a dead-end path to Palookaville, if you have no one to tell you what you're doing wrong and/or the stones to believe no one can teach you anything.