As an autodidact xennial, I’ll take that as a compliment.
DOS, Windows, all the format C:'s in my time, it’s all been trial and error as you say, because there weren’t really anything on the line in the 90s and early 00s.
So I’ve just bumbled through, tried dumb shit, reinstalled, repeat.
I wouldn’t know, I’m not hanging out with zoomers as a xennial in his early 40s without kids, but I’m sure their knowledge about phones and stuff is a lot higher than mine. I very rarely use tablets or even my own smartphone, it’s all about the computer for me.
Now, I am learning linux for second* time for the last 14 months, and it has also been humbling.
*
First time was 20 years ago, but everything felt incredibly broken at that time, not the experience I was after.