In this video I break down how I actually read research papers without getting stuck in the weeds or pretending I understand everything on the first pass. The first step is deciding why you’re reading the paper in the first place—are you trying to get a quick overview, extract a method, find evidence for a claim, or properly evaluate the work? That “why” changes what you focus on. Then I use four guiding questions to keep me oriented: what’s the problem, what’s new, how did they do it, and what do the results really mean. The big shift is: don’t read papers like a book. Scientific papers aren’t written to be read linearly, and if you try, you’ll waste time and miss the main story. Instead I recommend a three-pass approach: first pass for the gist, second pass for the details that matter to your goal, and third pass only if you need to deeply understand the methods, assumptions, and limitations. I also talk about being critical—looking for what’s missing, what’s assumed, and how strong the evidence is—then discussing and summarising the paper in your own words. Finally, I reflect on significance: how (or if) this changes what I believe, what I’d do next, and where it fits in the wider field.