I'd like to think I've gotten better:

• some of it has been learning fundamentals
• some of it has been

this is something i understood before, https://christianwood.net/posts/csv-file-upload-validation/

slight shift -- both intentional and not -- from looking for answers to finding them.

but now am doing it more proactively, not just when facing a tricky problem

I'm in good company

• https://www.benkuhn.net/blub/
• https://jvns.ca/blog/learn-how-things-work/
• https://www.iamjonas.me/2020/08/how-to-read-code.html

learning a some fundamentals has helped make this manageable: teachyourselfcs.com/