You don't master it, so instead I will write about what I did to learn reasonable amounts of it. I wrote lots of code, tried use it and then fed what I learnt

You don't master it, so instead I will write about what I did to learn reasonable amounts of it. I wrote lots of code, tried use it and then fed what I learnt back into the design. Repeatedly. I read tons of other people's code. Large, running projects. Example code won't work. Occasionally, I read books, but the only one I ever read all the way through was /Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days/ back in 1996 (and its title is ridiculous; I'm still learning every day).