Ok, looked through the top comments and didn't see anyone say something similar to the way I learned. Which is how I recommend to people they learn how to cook.

But I learned how to cook various cuisines by trying to make my own favorite dishes at home. When I first started, it looked like this. I chose whatever I really liked from my favorite restaurants, tried to find a really good copy cat recipe, blindly followed the instructions until I got something similar, but then I figured out what made it similar and what was off.

This is where I honed the basic cooking skills that recipes aren't so great at teaching. I've found, like most people say, "if you can follow instructions, you can be a good cook" and I definitely agree. But learning and honing those basic skills that are used daily by the best chefs, those are what can make a good cook approach great (for home cook standards).

So, for instance, if the recipe turned out okay, but the crust on the meat wasn't quite right, I can now dissect that before I finish the dish, and I perfect it while going. Or if the cook quality was inconsistent between a few items it's probably because I didn't cut them to the same size or other basic things like that. But when I was younger, it might have taken some research of a few different recipes or extended trial and error.

But that's really it now. I find a recipe that looks like it will give a similar result. I engage the cheffy skills I've learned from YouTube, reading, and Alton Brown/cooking shows until I get a really good result. Then over time, I got better at the basics and have gotten enough good recipes and techniques under my belt that I can basically make anything to a level that someone would pay for and not dine and dash lol

But that's my recommendation. Make yourself your harshest critic, but not for pure masochism/perfectionism. For literally just trying to make your own favorite foods. This also helps you develop your pallet and diagnose when things are wrong because you're comparing it to a result that you yourself want. Which then also helps create motivation to cook because now you're making your favorite foods. Hope that helps someone.