I'd heartily recommend joining a cabal if one seems appropriate for your character.

Downside: You will get killed a lot more than you would as an independent. I won't sugar-coat that.

Upside: You'll also learn a lot more/faster, for various reasons. You'll see a lot more conflict, which is a good teacher. You'll have a lot of like-minded and often more experienced players around that you can ask questions, and generally people will be inclined to help you out some. You'll need to help other people (either in the classic "I'm stuck in an avalanche in the Jade Mountains and I sure could use your help" sense and in the "I'm a member of your cabal and I need help doing X" sense). In all these things, if you keep your eyes open, you'll learn a lot.

I grant you, you can learn a lot with an intentionally independent character, too, but I think you'll benefit more from that once you've seen the inside of a cabal and have a better idea what kinds of questions you should be asking, if that makes any sense.