Thanks for starting this thread. I'm a new Eagle user, somewhat frustrated (though I'm attibuting my problems to my newbie-ness), and very happy to see good simple advice from those of you who know it well.
When you say that you never use wires, do you really mean never? That you attach everything through nets, even when it's just one connection from one pin to another?
And (I haven't tried this yet), if I put a collection of parts in the schematic window, connect a few, and open the board window, I'll see the traces on the board appear as I make connections on the schematic? And I can make "routes" on the board and have them appear on the schematic as well? Am I getting myself into trouble yet with these assumptions? :-?