Everyone has their own tips for mastering a new language, but not all of them work for everyone.
For example, some people find it helpful to watch videos or listen to podcasts without subtitles and try to guess the meaning. That actually doesn’t work for me. I often get distracted halfway through, and by the end, I don’t understand anything.
What’s the most overrated or overhyped language learning tip you’ve come across?
Did you try it yourself? How did it work out for you?
“Download Duolingo” 
same for me 
For me, it’s passive immersion. I tried to listen to podcasts, songs and watch videos in the target language so my ears could “get used to the sounds” but it actually affects nothing to my learning progress
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Watch Netflix
It’s all good watching but to improve you need to study the show you are watching. Pause, note down, repeat. Something 99% of us don’t do.
I’m watching shows on Netflix/YouTube now and pausing every now and then to do flash cards… I don’t know how much I’m getting from watching in my target language without subs but at least it keeps me in language learning mode.
I would say anyone that stresses “do this one thing” be it listening, speaking, Anki, textooks etc. There is no one thing. It all helps some but no one thing will get you there. Speaking or having real conversations is probably the most effective activity of all but obviously it’s hard to find someone who will spend much time talking to you in a meaningful way.
It’s weird. When I was in college I got really into learning German and dabbled in French and Spanish. And at that time I would have sworn up and down to you that reading was where it was at. And while reading feels helpful to me now it’s nowhere near enough by itself.