I understand OP talk about a personal opinion but that is really bad advice from falcolas and dghughes, which with a grand total of a few hours of actual flying should have no business at all misleading potential wanabees pilots.
You don't know how to fly with a PPL, yet alone without it during your lessons. You learn flying every day, every minute, every seconds of practice. From zero hours to 30,000.
The truth is "hyperfocus" is a common trait of EVERY baby pilot out there. That is just the way it is, you were not born with flying skills. So you take a few lessons, you fly the plane but you make so much mistake and tend to be overwhelmed, "behind the plane" every time, some can't even manage the radio by themselves before 10 hours. That is expected, that is why there is this guy on your right to teach you how to fly, it's actually a job you know. So, fast forward 100 hours you won't believe what you can achieve with your airplane, but you still does not know anything about flying, just continue to learn. Then there will be this IFR thing when you will be IMC in the soup shouting your first ILS solo to minimum, yes on a Cessna 172 if you want to. This day you will feel overwhelmed once again. This game never end, but this is absolutely the best game around.
"For me, the traits which make me an exceptional developer made me a terrible pilot." Pretty BS statement. Let's forget the "exceptional developer" selfie part, I have the complete opposite experience regarding IT pilots. I would say this very traits is just a great asset for pilots, had falcolas not chickened early on he may have pushed to the IFR part and challenges, he would have discovered a better world than IT.
You may read this guy on this very topic : http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/
Direct to the point, for the HN crowd : http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/avi...
Just leave your computer and live the life. Please wanabee pilots, don't listen to chicken talks, anybody can do it, go ahead, take this flight lesson, it will be one of the best time of your life !