Pick one simple project and follow it step by step rather than reading theory first. You can start with one of the guides on this page! You'll pick up the "why" as you go; you don't need to understand everything before you begin.

A basic soldering iron, a multimeter, wire cutters/strippers, and a breadboard for testing before you commit to soldering anything permanently. That's genuinely enough to start. You can always get more tools as you go.

Soldering is not hard, it just takes practice! It's mostly heat control and patience, and most people get a feel for it within their first few goes. I’d recommend practicing with some scrap wire first before soldering any of your projects!

Not at all, I'm not. My background is theatre and design, not science. Curiosity is the only real requirement; everything else is learnable.