Here is a link to tongue-in-cheek advice at GenealogyInTime on how to build a family tree without really trying. Very amusing and thought provoking. Their advice includes the following:
1. Forget your family
2. Jump on the Internet
3. Trust the Internet
4. You are related to people who have the same family name
5. You have royalty in your family
6. Family trees go back 1,000 years
7. Get a family coat-of-arms
8. Citations are not necessary
9. Ignore original documents
10. Fill in the blanks
11. Dates are fluid
12. Fact checking is not necessary
13. Copy and paste is your friend
14. It just takes a weekend