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Comment by TheHumanist | Hacker News Reader

Is it laziness or is it the fact that brains are different and many people (me included) can't absorb that much material and then retain it as well with so many other things going on in our work/lives. I would struggle just to read the entire docs, front to back, of anything in a sitting. Then to retain all that?

"lulz" -my brain

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The point is not retaining it all so. The point is to remember where to look, and know exactly which parts of the documentation are relevant to you, and retain those. Added bonus if you know owns the stuff not relevant to you and if you understand how those parts are linked.

That is, honestly, something I expect from people in a professional environment.

The ability to retain information is mostly fueled by your interest towards the topic, and not by your inherent ability to retain in general. This is what neuroscience has figured out. And it confirms very much my own observations during my life time. Inherently uninteresting topics or things I was forced to learn but which never resonated with me were always difficult to impossible to remember. Things I care about, or which interest me greatly, were almost easy to learn. Reading a document about an interesting topic cover to cover is easy. Keep that in mind next time you think you have a hard time learning something.

It isn't as much learning as maintaining focus. I struggle badly with that regardless of my interest in a topic.

I submit maintaining focus is also easier if the topic is inherently interesting. However, you sound like yu are describing something like ADHD, which probably needs a more specific approach.

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