For me this was helped by and interview with someone who urged new users to try and forget DOPs and focus on SOPs, get really comfortable with manipulating points, really get this to become instinctive, then move on to the cool stuff with a solid understanding of whats happeing. One of my biggest challenges on the journey was knowing what to learn when - a curriculum that best gets you to where you need to be as efficiently as possible. Once you get past that initial incline, it really pays off, and you can do stuff in Houdini that's either a massive struggle or just not possible in other software. (probably always had the time, but events made you prioritise things differently) I don’t think this is any different to any other software or skill, it's just that Houdini's learning curve is somewhat steeper than most.

Over the past few years the amount of learning resources has grown massively, and many are excellent, and as a result of the pandemic the time side of equation was also made more possible.

For me it was always about having the time to learn the necessary Houdini skills to be able to do meaningful work, and for that you need time and access to learning resources.

Houdini vs cinema 4d