§RTFM
Published on
One of the easiest ways to stand out as a developer is also one of the most overlooked: reading the documentation. It seems like common sense, but it still surprises me how many people just don’t do it.
Well-written documentation helps you understand the tool, not just use it. You discover common patterns, best practices, and sometimes even why something was built that way. It makes you faster, more confident, and less dependent on random search results or AI slop.
There’s a classic saying about this: “Read the fucking manual”, or RTFM for short; a blunt way to tell someone to check the documentation before asking questions. It’s been around since at least the 60s in hacker culture and early computing forums. It can sound harsh (and it is), but underneath the snark, there’s truth: the answers are often right there; you just have to RTFM.