Never trust benchmarks, full stop.
This I disagree with.
Maybe "Learn how to intepret benchmarks properly". At the end of the day, benchmarks are only important when you're looking to buy new hardware. Then you should learn a bit about what capabilities of the hardware you currently use are taxed, then pay more attention to the benchmarks that apply to those areas. I say 'pay more attention', because a CPU could be especially good at one thing you know is important to you, but really suck in another category that either you didn't know you should have held that category as important too, or that it would be important to you in the near future, due to change of software, or doing something new with your computer.
Benchmarks are very important, but they are difficult to interpret for one's own full advantage. Another issue is the one-upmanship that goes on between CPU manufacturers for example, how that can sway one's judgement even when you're not looking at the high-end CPUs.
It requires a reasonable amount of technical competence and a significant amount of experience to interpret them properly.
