My advise OP is
Play your own game at your own pace doing what you want to do & enjoy.
Try out different things for sure, that way it'll give you a perspective on how you are going to continue enjoying the game for years to come. Some things you'll like, others you won't.
But always be aware of both your surrounding's & other player's motive's..............not everyone is nice!
Come to the forum's to ask questions of things you may not understand or need advise on. But when you do, you may get 85+ different personal views on how someone else plays the game the correct way & everyone else is doing it wrong, plus 50+ different personal views on how you can do it better in a couple of hours making 1bil credits/hr in process

.
Thing is, it's OK to have an idea how other's are playing, but playing someone else's game may not be enjoyable for YOU.
The Doc
Truely Independent Pilot with a sworn allegiance only to myself..........ain't no one's puppet, "you pay - I'll deliver"

(Six year veteran with 10.5k+ hours on my game's playclock)