Docker is not for production (most of the time), it's a dev tool.

Ignore docker compose (and swarm and whatever else), because you don't need it. The basic Dockerfile format is simple, it reads like a bash script without logic, basically it's a list of dependencies. Then you need to understand the difference between images and containers, and you're good to go.

If you're lucky enough to be developing on Linux, then docker is just a name for a bunch of stuff that's mostly already built into the OS.