The "try things" advice says "no, really, actually give things a shot, don't just rely on your preconceptions about what will or will not be useful."
The "adjust your seat" advice says "no, really, the options people offer you are often not well-shaped for you; you need to tinker with it on the fly in order for it to be useful (most of the time)."
These two pieces of advice are (somewhat) in conflict. Their synthesis is to eat the instructions.
In essence: do indeed try the exact instructions as written, once, for the sake of making sure that you don't miss any cool or subtle nuggets of insight/wisdom. But go into this process expecting that you will find it doesn't fit you very well, and plan to give it a second try, later, after you've customized it to meet your personal needs and idiosyncrasies.
