Absolutely. But I've found that small talk sows the seeds for a much better landing. It's not something I find myself wanting to life hack away. Because often the small talk transforms within a couple of minutes or even seconds into something "Real" or "Unique" (quotes around those words not because I don't think small talk isn't real or unique, but what likely a lot of people might think. Basically, what I mean by "Real" or "Unique" is to say, transcendental.)
YMMV, but it's been my experience that small talk is a skill that you can exercise and has its own value, not simply something to be waited through until you can get to something of substance.
This guy has some fantastic videos on architecture in Godot. It takes a little more work to go from simple->complex, like using the event system properly, global scripts, etc
I've recently checked out Godot and it turned out to be easier than I expected. I followed this series of tutorials [0] (I found it most palatable at 2x speed, occasionally going to 1x for critical parts).
Took me about an hour altogether to get pretty productive at making a non-trivial game. The engine is cool and takes care of a lot of routine things, like physics, collisions, and organizing things hierarchically.
As you become successful in your field (or wherever), and further internalize the habits that are necessary to be successful, it's clear that many of these things are easy to do, it's just that people don't want to do them.
In other words ... it's obvious that many people don't want to be successful, and if they were to introspect deeply, they would see this clearly. In fact what they want is to be somewhere comfortable in the middle of the herd, not having to do too much work.
Most people want to be comfortable, not 'successful' in a way that requires ambition. But many people are brainwashed enough by the rhetoric of success that they don't realize it's not what they want.
There's also something I haven't figured out yet. Every time I give advice, I get a number of responses from people with self-defeating attitudes, explaining how this advice can't possibly apply to them because blah blah blah. These people build up belief structures that are obviously intended to keep them mired in their current situation, smelling of low self-esteem and defeatism. "Obviously" it's better not to be stuck in these belief structures, yet people will defend them vigorously, and in some cases fiercely. I don't yet fully understand why, except maybe that if someone believes there is a solution to their problem, then it must be their fault that they haven't solved it, and/or that there will be a clear failure that is their fault if they attempt to solve it.
YMMV, but it's been my experience that small talk is a skill that you can exercise and has its own value, not simply something to be waited through until you can get to something of substance.