Reading Writeups Instead of Practicing Held Back Cybersecurity Learning Progress

The poster spent two months reading writeups before attempting machines, believing it would help them understand the process. They realized progress only came from struggling through boxes independently, particularly when stuck on enumeration. Following the TryHackMe Pre-Security and Jr Pentester paths without reading ahead, and taking rough notes during attempts, helped them improve. They advised others in a similar situation to stop consuming writeups and start working on machines directly.