You need surprisingly little if you already have general lisp knowledge to actually be able to write your own configs. Hell, you don't need any knowledge just work with it as if it's some config file grammar. I started with doom and after a year or so took a step into vanilla Emacs. My Emacs config is exactly how I want it now. Don't get me wrong it's not life changing compared to Doom but if you have a weekend spare and you are feeling up the challenge, give it a shot.
You need surprisingly little if you already have general lisp knowledge to actually be able to write your own configs. Hell, you don't need any knowledge just work with it as if it's some config file grammar. I started with doom and after a year or so took a step into vanilla Emacs. My Emacs config is exactly how I want it now. Don't get me wrong it's not life changing compared to Doom but if you have a weekend spare and you are feeling up the challenge, give it a shot.