As a very recent convert to KiCad, with some EDA experience 25+ years ago, I wish I had found a warning I would like to offer others in my position ie, don’t jump in at the ‘deep end’, creating schematics in isolation! I now realise several things will come of learning ‘the environment’ from the ground up - you will not end up with an un-useable mess of files, you will not need to dump several weeks of work, you will not run into endless ‘brick walls’ but you will save time, eventually!!
What does that mean? Do you mean that a newbie’s first schematics should be co-developed with the pcb?
Or maybe one should not shut oneself away in a log cabin deep in the woods to draw schematics with KiCad but do it in the company of friends or neighbours.
Joking aside, welcome to the community. Have a lot of fun and productivity with KiCad.
When I moved in 2017 to KiCad I don’t remember any problems that can be imagined you can have in mind.
Before downloading KiCad (4.0.7 those time) I have read all pdfs from KiCad doc page:
After (or rather during) reading I decided that I don’t like KiCad way of assigning footprints after using general symbols at schematic and I want to have each symbol permanently assigned with footprint so I started from making my libraries to be used in my first schematic and pcb.
I think you mean that you should make you schematic and do the PCB as one project all the way thru from top to bottom using and understanding the Kicad ecosystem as you go and you will get the results you want. Maybe that is what you mean and you are correct 
So often we have people asking odd questions, and after a while they say " oh no I haven’t made a schematic I don’t know how" and we say 
Please learn EDA basics then come back and you will be welcomed with open arms ( maybe !)…or have I missed the point ? 
Mousey, you have hit the point, exactly! My mistake was just as you have described, which resulted in a mess of files because I had created a bunch of schematics (& attendant files!) without using the ‘project’ process.
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I understand that you have stop reading Getting Started at Basic Concepts:
where schematic is shown.
And didn’t even reach Tutorial Part 1: Project (in pdf it is 4 pages later) where first sentence says:
“The first thing to do when starting a new design is to create a new project.”
May be Getting Started should be rewritten in the way that information about Project precedes any information about schematic to avoid such beginner mistakes.
Agree - some basic information about the KiCAD environment (projects et al) right up front may have saved me from jumping right into schematics! Now that I have gone back to the beginning, I have a nice, clean & un-cluttered system, with even a very simple .pcb under way!
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In my mind, it’s ultimately a strength of KiCAD that you can jump into any of the programs without the support of other programs or the Project Manager. But that’s something that you’d do VERY rarely.
Perhaps there should be a nag-screen that comes up when starting a program without a defined project. It could say something like,
It looks like you’re doing something dumb. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?
Novices might appreciate the warning. Experienced users would probably find it annoying.
Starting a project (your project) by starting a project is a universal concept.
My new project: A wooden table!
I started by banging in nails into some wood. Then I cut the legs to different lengths to see how they might fit the table top. I’ll see how well the glue sticks to painted surfaces.
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Let me guess - this effort started when you saw a stack of lumber, behind the home center store, on sale for a special, low, price. I know a few managers like you!
How about “Newbies - read this to avoid frustration & save time”, to open a description of the environment, then go to the current tutorial? Avoids annoying the power users!
Nonono! I got 13 tables for free and didn’t know what to do with them. But they were FREE! After several discussions, thinking and forum searches, I got the brilliant idea to make a table. I think I might have usage for one. I can stack the recycled wood of some spare tables on it. You know, I got them for free!
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I think that is the “standard” definition of EDA. A schematic driving a pcb design mainly via a netlist.
I have to admit that I do not understand what it is that the OP is saying one should not do. I have used KiCad for a small simple schematic which I kluged together without a pcb.
I think the OP use the Schematic editor in isolation and not called from the main KiCad “Project” window . . . i.e. not linked to a Project
Then may be generated netlists and used them in PCB also in isolation.
But we can only guess as it was not clearly said.
I suppose that he even not read Getting Started manual as first sentence in Part 1 of Tutorial saying “The first thing to do when starting a new design is to create a new project.” is rather hard to miss.
In my opinion “Advice for KiCAD newbies” should simply be “Read Getting Started manual”, but it is so obvious that wherever it will be written it will look like explaining that 2+2 is 4.
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Ahh thanks I should have thought of that…
That sounds good to me, but then the question becomes: How do you get stopped? 
Just to voice the opposite opinion: the all-too common insight that the first project with a new tool is best discarded and done from scratch didn’t apply here. Yes there were a few limitations (e.g. netclasses for wider traces don’t seem that useful when it can’t reach the IC pins without DRC violation; net ties are fairly limited when they require an outer layer). But all over all, I’d say the user gets guided the user in the right direction.
For pcbNew, a warning on default board parameters might be in order e.g. default copper-to-hole clearance might be not strict enough even for a “non-budget” regular FR4 process.
At least a couple of times, I have posted my L2 net tie on other threads. I created the net tie via a “hack” of a net tie that I first constructed using the footprint editor. I then text-edited with Notepad to change the copper layer. I am no software whiz but this was not so difficult to do.
Is the ability to put a net tie on an internal layer something which many KiCad users would like? I would think it might be.
I think yes.
At least one of typical net tie use is to connect two GNDs in one point. And GNDs are typically at internal layers.