Understanding that you are allowed to do random access and skimming is crucial not only to enjoy reading many papers but to technical books as well! You got tau

Understanding that you are allowed to do random access and skimming is crucial not only to enjoy reading many papers but to technical books as well! You got taught to read something from cover to cover before college and doing otherwise is viewed as laziness, maybe even cheating. It's not until later they explicitly state you should skim and only digg deeper when there's something relevant you don't understand. It is also often pointed out that great academics aren't necessarily great writers which I'm sure is the cause for a lot of the dryness in papers. I'm also reasonably sure it has to do with journals enforcing overly strict formating rules to the point of blatantly refusing to publish for no reason other than being slightly over length. A hilarious tale of this is How to Publish a Scientific Comment in 123 Easy Steps: http://www.physics.gatech.edu/frog/How%20to%20Publish%20a%20Comment%20w%20suggestions.pdf http://www.physics.gatech.edu/frog/How%20to%20Publish%20a%20...