We celebrate writing code and barely talk about reading it, yet reading is most of the job. Debugging, reviewing, inheriting a system, understanding a library: all reading.
The skill is learnable. Read top-down first, entry points, routes, the shape of the data, before chasing details. Run the code, don't just scan it. And read the tests; they're the executable spec.
The payoff compounds: developers who read well onboard faster, debug faster, and write code that's easier to read, because they know what it's like to be on the other side.
