I just started two weeks ago and thanks to a lot of osmosis from being in steemit, I don't find it all that daunting to really dive into. This was a very useful post though.
I try to do light research on the unique elements of a currency, it's recent trends and what people are saying about it. I do that for 3-4 coins a day. I've yet to read any white papers but I will certainly do that if I plan on investing a lot into anything, so far I've only invested 100 steem into litecoin btc dash and eos.
I also ask lots of questions to friends who know their stuff. I don't find it to be much of a risk because i have earned it all on steemit, which i have faith in but is also a risk as far as "will steem remain valuable?”