Minimalist language learning

Do some people take language learning too serious or not serious enough? I've seen comments where language learners criticize others for being "too hardcore", "too obsessive" or "too serious". At the same time there are "serious" language learners who criticize others for being "not efficient", "lazy" or "not serious enough", because they prefer to learn at their own pace, take breaks or like to learn several languages instead of focusing on one language to reach a native-like level as fast as possible. People also argue a lot about whose achievements are more impressive: The one who learned several languages to a level at where they can use the language comfortably (not perfect but they can use their language skills the way they want). Or the one who reached a native-like level in one language within a few years (especially if it's a language that is considered as very difficult and exotic, like Japanese, Ch

(Please note that my blog is about  my   own  experiences and thoughts. I describe what works for  me  and what  I  enjoy. Some things work well for many people, but not everything works for everyone. If something else works better for you, that's fine! Please do what works best for you. I just want to share my experiences. It's not my intention to give "instructions".) Recently, I read the following advice:  "Don't care about the right level, read what you love!"  It's funny, because this is what I did before I switched to my current way of reading and although I tried to read articles about topics I'm very interested in I was very frustrated because I needed to look up almost every word (which is no surprise since my favorite topics are history and science XD). It was no fun at all and I didn't made any noticeable progress for months. Maybe it's because the books and topics I really love are much more difficult to read than the books o