Thanks for this comparison. I went through this very same thing, and spent a lot of time and ammunition firing at the wrong solutions before I landed on this very same thinking. Best practices are fine, but it's way more important to get some code written for that feature. Forging ahead without tutorials and Stack Overflow (using only what you know as a software developer in general) is going to make you a better, more productive developer a lot faster than anything else. The shopping metaphor is excellent.