That bit about staring at the map instead of the mountain is the whole problem in one sentence. What works for me is picking maybe five or six checkpoints for the day, like a pass, a creek, and where I plan to camp, and that's it. I write them on a little card in my pocket and the map stays buried unless something looks off. Then I can actually look around and still know roughly where I stand. The detour sign thing happens to everybody, but it stings less when you're not glued to a paper plan that says the trail should go some other way.

Free info that sticks beats paid info you forget. I watched a woman at a booth in Houston do a blowout with nothing but a brush and tension, no fancy nozzle tricks. She broke down how the angle of your wrist changes the root lift and I never saw that in a class. That one tip fixed my volume problems for good. The workshops teach you the what, but standing next to somebody's hands teaches you the how.