This is in a way like doing math. I can read a math book all day and even appreciate the ideas in the book, but I'd practically learn little if I don't actually attempt to work out examples for the definitions, the theorems, and some exercises in the book.

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TheNewsIsHere 5 days ago | parent [-]

I fall into this trap more than I’d care to admit.

I love learning by reading, to the point that I’ll read the available documentation for something before I decide to use it. This consumes a lot of time, and there’s a tradeoff.

Eventually if I do use the thing, I’m well suited to learning it quickly because I know where to go when I get stuck.

But by the same token I read a lot of documentation I never again need to use. Sometimes it’s useful for learning about how others have done things.

	▲	Cthulhu_ 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm the same, but thing is, 99% of the things I read about (on e.g. HN) are just... not important. I don't use them in my daily life. But I do have a very large knowledge base of small tidbits of information, so if I do need to ever go in-depth, I know where/how to find it. ...not that I do of course, I struggle with my long term attention span, I can't read documentation front to back and for twenty odd years now have just googled for the tidbit I needed and skipped the rest.