When I learned to drive a stick I did it for fun as an adult and taught myself on a beater car. After thinking about it a bit before getting behind the wheel f

When I learned to drive a stick I did it for fun as an adult and taught myself on a beater car. After thinking about it a bit before getting behind the wheel for the first time, I simply imagined the clutch as a "lock" on a shared resource. Either the engine or the stick have access to the state of the gearbox, but not both at the same time. I did witness my parents driving when I was much younger and recall them being very gentle and smooth without riding the clutch too much in 1st so I did the same. Surprisingly I didn't stall my very first attempt, but did as soon as I tried 2nd. Drove around for a bit on this dirt patch and even got it up to 3rd. Practiced downshifting from 3rd to 2nd and braking from neutral to a stop. Practiced lots of 1st gear starts because I was terrified of intersections on real roads with traffic. So I finally get on the road and come to a stop at a rural intersection with an old man in an even older pickup truck. It's my turn to go... The whole car shakes violently from the worst stall I've ever made until then or since. The old man laughed his head off at me and then went on his way. The embarrassment was so intense I never really had a problem shifting since then. I might be wrong, but I think this is how people used to learn and just kept it to themselves. :)