The magic ingredient was that I had already been doing it for around 20 years. I doubt there's much of a shortcut. Or maybe there is a shortcut and I was neve

The magic ingredient was that I had already been doing it for around 20 years. I doubt there's much of a shortcut. Or maybe there is a shortcut and I was never clever enough to find it. And at that point (20 years), my understanding of documentation had become completely different in a number of ways. More subtle, nuanced. I don't know if this will be helpful at all -- but even after being a professional programmer for nearly three decades, I still read the "basics" chapters of every programming book. And I still usually pick up something from reading those parts that most people skip.