I believe knot-tying would be a great, life-long skill to have, especially being able to know which knots work best for different situations, like when the rope is thick and not very flexible or bendable.
I have lots of nylon rope and fishing line of various diameters, but don’t know where to begin and/or the best way to get started. My goal is to make this a long-term hobby and spend 1-2 hours per week improving my knot-tying knowledge, skill, and speed.
The midshipmans hitch (or the inferior scouting version called a taut-line hitch) is technically less useful in almost all cases to the Truckers Hitch you mention, but it is pretty good for tying down tarps and shit for camping, so the point that the people you are with will think you are some kind of amazing outdoors genius for whipping it out like its no big deal.