cool thread ...
a few good ones here already (monitors, learning music theory, and getting to know your software rather than always searching for the next best thing).
Heres one:
Music is mathematical. Music has rules. They have been around for hundreds of years, and they exist because they work. They are present in almost all music. Dont try to re-invent the wheel every time you start a new tune. Learn to obey the rules before attempting to break them.
Like mathematics, the rules allow for endless permutations and possibilties.
Part of the culture of underground music is nonconformist, challenge authority and accepted norms etc, but musical rules are good rules, embrace them, conform to them
oh, and READ THE FUCKIN MANUAL!