You realize that you just listed a handful of rules of thumbs. All of which would be taught in an introductory shop course, but not everyone pays attention or understands to implications of those rules as they might apply in every scenario.
The caution is warranted here. Shop machines literally can flense, main, or kill you. Even at low speeds.
I would say everyone should try these things if they 1) find a mentor to help do it safely or 2) read enough in advance to become subject experts, before ever setting foot in the shop. Under no circumstances attempt to learn by blind trial and error.
I'm a semi self-trained machinist, as in, I had a lot of experience making stuff with hand and power tools, but no experience with machining, so my two cents is:
1. You're not really going to be able to use a machine full stop unless you read a book, watch a bunch of introductory videos, or go to a course. They're not very intuitive.
2. Besides the stuff that's obvious, there are just tons of things that are non obvious. For instance, brass has a habit of grabbing bits then turning into a whirlygig of death. There are just tons of stuff like this ('don't feel around in hydraulics', 'watch out for springs', etc) that you won't really get in an introductory course anyway.
3. Everybody is literally driving drunk where I live. You walk past half-asleep idiots driving gigantic machines all the time. At least with machine tools, you only pay for your own incompetence.
The caution is warranted here. Shop machines literally can flense, main, or kill you. Even at low speeds.
I would say everyone should try these things if they 1) find a mentor to help do it safely or 2) read enough in advance to become subject experts, before ever setting foot in the shop. Under no circumstances attempt to learn by blind trial and error.