For me, I just can't learn that way--that's surely where the discrepancy is. I've never been able to, say, read one of those O'Reilly programming books all the way through (though I have bought a couple with the best of intentions). I just have to start playing around. It's probably not the right way, but its served me well. I think this is why the python docs don't work for me--they don't seem suited to that type of learning.