Documentation tells you how.
People tell you why.
You can learn a tool from the docs.
The syntax, the options,
the official way it's meant to work.
But the docs won't tell you
which parts everyone ignores.
The trap that bit the whole team last year.
The reason it's built that odd way.
The shortcut that saves an hour
that nobody bothered to write down.
That knowledge lives in people.
In the ones who've been there,
who've made the mistakes,
who carry the context
no manual contains.
So don't just read.
Ask.
Sit with someone who knows.
Watch how they work.
Ask why, not just how.
Ask what they wish
they'd known earlier.
The fastest learning
I've ever done
came from a person
willing to hand me
their hard-won context
in an afternoon.
Read the docs, always.
But go find the people, too.
They know the things
the docs never say.
– Asael Shinder
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