Fundamental concepts you wish someone told/taught you when you were starting judo

I think we haven't had one of these in a while and as far as I've read them, they always turn out quite interesting, so let's have another. I'll start with a bunch as I've got them on my mind right now.

• Pick one stance from the beginning, righty or lefty. I wish someone told me that, if I'm a right handed person but I've trained a striking martial with an orthodox stance, I should be a lefty in judo because it is much easier to gain strength and learn how to use my left arm, than it is to unlearn movement patterns I've learned in a left/orthodox stance in a striking martial art. Would've saved me a few months of confusion at least.
• Keep an upright fighting posture - best way to understand that for me was to stand up normally, place my hand horizontally at the level of my mouth, and while keeping my hand at that level, squat/bend at the knees until my eyes are at the level of my hand and keeping my back straight. I had already learned that when training muay thai to an extent, but it's much more important in judo.
• Keep my arms close to my body and never overreach to get grips, neither with the lapel arm, nor with the sleeve arm. My arms should never be fully extended.
• Focus on learning how to use my bodyweight to move uke and to observe how they react to it, i.e. getting a grip then leaning my upper body back by using my legs. It's not squatting down and up and pulling upwards as taught in most traditional uchikomi forms. It's leaning your upper body backwards while positioning your hips and legs where they need to be for a throw.
• Building up on the above, in randori/shiai, almost all throws are "sacrifice" throws, because attaching to uke and using my bodyweight fully and throughout the entire is the only actual way to achieve a high success rate for throws against a resisting opponent.
• Since I'm tall, split step entries are my best friend.
• There is no such thing as "long range" judo. It is not possible to throw someone while keeping them at distance.
• Push before a forward throw, pull before backwards throw.
• If I attack the legs, the arms will often relax.
• An opponent bent forward is an opponent half-thrown. Don't play to their game and don't bent down forwards with them.
• Train core and lower back religiously.
• Check Kneesovertoesguy on YouTube to fix knee issues.
• Last but not least, watch HanpanTV