A lot of what we know as people are the opinions of others that we bought into, in tech also we have taken upon ourselves a lot of opinions. Opinions themselves aren't bad as long as we're able to distinguish between opinions and fact in order to assess their authenticity.
I believe code newbies and non-tech fellows need to gather as much of these opinions as they can, you're not going to be able to learn or test everything yourself, a lot of times knowledge of these opinions can show that you're catching up. Also, these opinions can be instrumental in conversations and recruitment interviews; you're not expected to know it all, you should however have some ideas that shows you're paying attention.
Be extra careful not to speak of opinions as if they're facts, before you confirm from trusted, public sources of knowledge you have to be willing to entertain multiple perspectives about some issues and be able to weigh in on them.