Some people learn computer software by booting it up and starting to click on things.
I'm one of those annoying people who read the manual cover to cover before I'll even put the disk into my Macintosh. In eight years of daily computer use I've had to call tech support maybe three times. I don't think there are many things in this world that you can't teach yourself with a little time and the right book. I quizzed my photojournalist uncle on the finer points of gamma curves and the zone system. Twenty-six years later I still draw heavily upon the lessons of those two primers.