Learning the Game

Multitudes of openings, middle and end games, strategy, tactics, variations, main and secondary lines, collections of "how to's" on youtube asking one to first decide whether you want a slow or fast-paced game and then memorize sequences of moves in response to hypothetical moves,  etc. Like golf, I think chess is incredibly difficult to learn and impossible to master (but a lot more people choose to play golf).  IMHO both are guilty of making their game so complex and hard to learn. So help me out. Pretend you are writing a book on how to play the game or maybe coaching someone who is perhaps a beginner who needs a path to follow from beginner to advanced.  What things would you write/teach and in what order? And maybe what to ignore amongst all the instructional noise out there. A big thank you!