I see the value in reading documentation front-to-back for picking up all the little tidbits of information (or at least knowing where they're documented), but yeah, ultimately I need to be building something to really process the information.

Kind of my sweetspot is documentation that makes you build along, but doesn't overstay its welcome. As in, don't cram all the details along the way, but rather just dish out important information on rapidfire.
I will run off building my own thing in the middle of the tutorial, if that isn't the case, whether I want to or not. As soon as it's quicker to learn by dicking around with the code, I will do that and then I've spoiled future chapters, so likely won't return.