To me, having a puppy at home is always an opportunity to learn, to do better, to explore a new world.
A puppy that is free to act as a puppy, with no anxiety to contain his behavior within human rules, within schemes that basically prevent dog owners from present and future hassles.
The first, and biggest, mistake is to think that socialization means to make our dog spend time with other dogs and other people.
When a procedure, or a behavior, is declared "self-control", ask yourself if someone is not rather exercising control on the dog or on the reinforcement.
"Tricks" are all those behaviors that we can teach our dogs and that on the surface appear to be useless, apart from the fact that you can have fun together.