Also the process showed him his lack of knowledge very clearly: He can't read error messages. This is an useful skill in every language although it transfers no

Also the process showed him his lack of knowledge very clearly: He can't read error messages. This is an useful skill in every language although it transfers not at all to any other activity (even reading compiler messages of a different vendor). Especially since this was a common error it is important to realize it early and fast. You just can't go to sleep every time you have a typo. OP only sees the immediate solution (insofar just waiting for a flash of genius counts as a solution) but no the actual error.