How to read Technical Documents as fast as possible

Trying to learn something new is hard, especially if it is technical in nature. Reading is a skill that every person trying something new should continue to develop. Here's how I get an overview of a technical document.

1. Establish why you are reading it

If you don't know what you are trying to find, you'll either fall asleep or mindlessly stare at the words in each section. Are you reading for familiarity? Do you need to figure out how to do something specific? What exactly is the task you need to accomplish?

2. Get an overview of the content and structure of the document

Read the cover, table of contents, and any introduction chapter (5 mins max).

3. Take 30s to 2 minutes to scan the rest of the document. Click on the scrollbar and just breeze through all the pages. Just look at the pictures, tables and diagrams. Look for things that look familiar and that you will understand immediately. APIs, schematics, flow charts, block diagrams. Read the captions under the pictures.

4. If you want, stop at the interesting parts and take a deeper look. Stop when it gets boring.

5. Look at the table of contents again. You'll have a deeper understanding of the document after you look again.

6. Choose what to read next based on interesting-ness or usefulness. If there's nothing useful, close the doc. You can say that you've read it from cover to cover. ;)

Notes:

• At anytime, If what you're looking for is not there, close the document and read something else. You can establish this at step 2 onwards.
• Learn to practice reading AND comprehension. This is done not by reading from start to finish, but by scanning pages and looking for meaningful words.

So thanks for reading. I hope this helps. Go out and create something!