I learned like this too, though not quite so extreme. I was going to be somewhere with my laptop but no internet for about a week so I printed off an at-the-tim

I learned like this too, though not quite so extreme. I was going to be somewhere with my laptop but no internet for about a week so I printed off an at-the-time popular strategy guide called something along the lines of "the absolute beginners guide to dwarf fortress". This was before the wiki existed! Anyhow, it worked out, as my build order still is vaguely reminiscent of what was in that guide, more than 10 years ago.