My advice to learn programming is to avoid shortcuts and do the hard things like read the documentation
Once you’re comfortable with the basics by all means read the table of contents to know what you don’t know. I recommend this especially when dealing with databases, it’s amazing how many people never advance past the apprenticeship part of learning software engineering.
That depends on both the subject and the person. Some learn better by understanding the fundamentals first. Some subjects (in CS/SE as well) might not even be approachable without it.
The way dosco189 is using GPT is perfectly fine. They aren't letting GPT do all the work for them, they're letting it explain how concepts relate to each other, something you often will not find in the documentation.
Gpt3.5 is like super Google, and gpt-4 is like a polymath in everything intern. Learning has never been easier for me, I'm stoked.
If you disliked a certain teaching style before you were basically screwed. I've learned some languages purely because the documentation was fun for me personally.