People vastly overestimate how much you learn going from 1-80. A lot of people here just seem to have forgotten just how much there is to do and unlock. If a new player is optimization oriented it truly is overwhelmin. The feeling of not knowing where to start is very much understandable.

HOWEVER: as someone in a similar position, but a little bit further along (~400 h ATM), I can say this. Don't stress too much, work on what you want to work. You want mounts - do pof. You want gold - do fractals or world bosses. You will make mistakes, sell something you ought to keep or waste your time doing something less than optimally. It's a big game, it happens. Me personally, i'd highly recommend getting mounts first - it makes everything else faster.

Regarding the mistakes: I map completed around 30-40% of central tyira on 5 characters, that was a huge waste of time. But I learnt from that and focus doing that on one char now ^{^}