[barnacled]

This really chimes with me, I'm writing a book about the Linux memory management subsystem [0] and my primary motivation is to learn the subject more deeply and what Paul says here really aligns with my experience.

The effort to explain its machinery demands that I look very deeply - trying to answer questions like 'how does a page of memory get reclaimed?', or 'how does a userspace allocation propagate through the kernel?' - and following the white rabbit all the way down the burrow, forces a far deeper level of understanding than simply figuring something out for a patch.

(Obligatory plug!) For anybody who's interested in the topic, I plan to launch the book in a year or so, to be notified when it's released, sign up at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSen0gefOrPWi6ZtEQ25...

[0]:https://ljs.io/book.html