Ask HN: Do you read docs, or just skim for shiny syntax? or other?

It depends on the docs and what they're documenting. Sometimes I read them in their entirety, sometimes I ignore them.

Most of the time, I skim them to familiarize myself with what they're covering and where they're covering it. Then when I need to clear something up or learn something, I have a clue about where in the docs to look (or to look elsewhere).

The docs are important when one has a problem or it isn’t intuitive. And sometimes for the sheer love of understanding what exactly you meant by your product for which I get whatever I get out of applying it.

However often that happens amid the many misadventures of using the assortment of things that we apply for our daily grind.

I skim, particularly those parts related to configuration or access control. Taking some small pleasure reading well written or genuinely informative parts.

I usually know what type I have and what type I want and just skim, searching for code examples with anything using either of those types.

The only time I really read some docs is if I've been stuck on one particular problem for a while.

I suspect that 90% of the time, if it isn't in a codeblock I don't read it.