We can read very fast. But understanding takes time.

Years, if we're lucky. And it is never clear if the understanding is complete either. One could say that there is something new to learn always, but that's a not quite correct: I do sometimes reach points for very specific things where I understand them, and more information about them is noise at best.

So, for very specific domains, there is an end. But that end takes time.

Sometimes, one can understand at the speed of reading, but that is only when one has already understood all the prerequisites.

Once a witty idea arose and stay stuck in my head for a while - that one can only understand books that one has already understood. That is, the purpose of the written word is to make the understanding manifest, but the understanding itself is not coming through the words.

Like most wit, I now think that is incorrect. If one has understood the necessary prerequisites, sometimes a sentence is all it takes to unplateau to the next plane of understanding.

I haven't found shortcuts to understanding.

Since it takes too long, sometimes I indulge in rituals, e.g. writing things down by hand on paper. I don't know if it helps, and I suspect it doesn't, but such rituals sometimes help stay immersed. And the only road to understanding I've found is immersion.

Immersion, and time.