As a baby writer I was raised with a horror of exposition, which I often approach in a spirit of "Does the reader need to be told this in so many words?" But as I've grown to realize how unreliable telepathy is, I've been trying to ask myself more often, "Is there a reason to withhold this information from the reader?" So I'm trying to do better at giving basic situating information early on.
Also, for a cheat code: if you cook your characters right, you can get them to tell the reader all about themselves by how they project on other people.
This may also be a show vs tell thing, in that a writer too dedicated to showing can leave the reader utterly baffled about why they're being shown these details.
"I took out flour from the bottom cupboard, a mixing bowl from the top cupboard, and eggs from the fridge" gives us something to picture, but it'd be more effective to say "I started baking the birthday cake, hoping it'd be ready before my sister showed up for her party." Even if the latter is 'telling,' it gives the reader more useful context.
This reminds me of the advice for writing image descriptions: giving the number and color of stripes in someone's shirt is nowhere near as helpful as conveying what they're doing, including a sense of how/why they're doing it (are they celebrating? are they angry? etc.)
