The map shows the roads, not the potholes. Talk to someone who’s driven it.

Plans describe structure, and structure is the least surprising part of anything. What actually slows you down is texture, the office that never replies, the class everyone fails, the month the money runs short. None of that appears in an official description, which is written by people who are not currently in the car.

Before you commit to something big, find one person a year or two ahead of you and ask what they wish they had known. Ask specifically what went wrong, not what it was like. Fifteen minutes of that is worth a week of reading.