I thrive via an "on-demand" learning approach. But to me, I use this approach as a way to immerse myself so I can reach a better conceptual understanding. I don't use tools or new skills without thinking about how they might work under the hood. I also spend lots of time relating the tools and skills I use to other things I've done in the past. Many times this leads me to learn about the abstract concepts that underpin the tools/skills I use - something I would not care about if it was presented to me without context.

Here is an example. I was interested in real-time 3D graphics programming. How did I go about it? I followed the bare minimum tutorials to get OpenGL set up with C++ and then I just wrote code for several months, trying different things. This allowed me to develop my own intuition around linear algebra, geometry, 3D rendering, GPU pipelines, etc. I knew I wasn't doing anything groundbreaking, but what I found was after this experimentation I was able to readily digest and understand the formal approach to the topic. And it was out of my own interest too. I was watching university lectures, reading about mathematical proofs, etc. Something I thought I'd never be able to do. And I found it much more rewarding as I was able to see where my intuitions were correct and lined up with the formal approach, and also where I was very wrong.