Stop even thinking about experimenting
.. is that he is 'experimenting'.

a) If 'experimenting' (as it does for most others) means reading datasheets and appnotes and then CAREFULLY DESIGNING the thing i.e. the 'experiment' is "does this carefully crafted thing work", then OK
b) If (as in Chico's case) 'experimenting' means considering reading reading datasheets and appnotes a waste of time and then throwing something together it is wasteful, and in this case, extremely dangerous.

In case a) it is very unlikely you (partially) destroy a component, in case b) it is very likely and thus all results from future 'experiments' are invalid. E.g. you can not see on an uC package that a port pin is fried and the 'experiment' will show an invalid result.

Erik