Well, I know that magic is really powerful and it is also a practice that should be done with a great deal of responsibility for those that have deep knowledge of it. It sure can help many people reach their desired destinies and do that which they love, but on the hands of those that do not have high enough ethics or are just in this for power, excitement and ego, they can be devastating.
For this, it is obvious that many of the mystic, occult or magic books have a lot disinfo, differences on some key aspects or are outright done by people that have a very small knowledge of it, just to make it so that most of the unprepared and undesired people reach a dead-end or a very small portion of the real stuff.
Also, as a practice or science, magic is just next to studying medicine, engineering or physics, and as such, many won't believe on the quality or worth of a magician if he is self taught. You wouldn't trust a medic that has only learned from reading books inside his house, with no mentorship and without the supervision of an experienced person on the subject. Maybe he does give a correct, but broad, answer to your problem, instead of a graduate that can pinpoint your issue and give a very specific solution to it.
I know that IB's are full of people that believe in self-learning, I too believe on this, but considering how hard it is to find gems in all the babble that most magic books have, I think that finding a mentor on the subject might be key. Yes, you might become a magician is you study hard enough, have the talent necessary and also know the difference between bullshit and the real deal, but you won't be near the level of a grand magician that studied under another grand magician. Self- learning and the desire of knowledge for the wrong reasons has brought to life the meme/chaos magician who just does this for ego and is probably being deceived to benefit the magic of others, maybe harmless, but a very bad destiny to have.
So, in the end, what should we do? I believe that maybe, if you are talented, dedicated and have the right intentions, synchronicity might do it's thing and make you meet with a magician willing to teach you what he knows. But this will surely be the path of few.
I don't know what you guys think, because probably most of this board is against what I'm saying, but I believe that magic can be a path for everyone, but taking it is much, much more harder than we think. I hope I get to the point where my will brings me to a master, but until then, I honestly just can't believe in most of the books or on the internet magic mentors.