Haven't done a PhD but took some time off from work to read/research on my own and this year 1 PhD resonate well with me. Read top to bottom of a paper, feel th

Haven't done a PhD but took some time off from work to read/research on my own and this year 1 PhD resonate well with me. Read top to bottom of a paper, feel the despair (feeling dumb) and look for part that I understand. The process was utterly a time waste except for when the paper in question was a survey paper.