Ask HN: Technical Papers – reading more/better

HN is filled with tremendously knowledgeable people, and especially those who are well versed in various complex tech spaces such as distributed systems, machine learning and so on.

So HNers, in your process for acquiring expertise, how important has been reading papers? How did you learn to read (or "get through" rather :P) more papers? How did you improve your understanding/retention and so on?

As someone starting out, what I find intriguing are meetups like PapersWeLove. Has community/learning partners played a role in your deciphering and actually getting a lot out of technical papers?

Also feel free to elaborate on personal qualities such as intensity/consistency or such things that you think have worked in your favour.

(well that's quite a few questions, pick any or all to answer :))