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.<p>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?<p>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?<p>Also feel free to elaborate on personal qualities such as intensity/consistency or such things that you think have worked in your favour.<p>(well that's quite a few questions, pick any or all to answer :))