LOL, no, I learned the same way you are learning. I started my server 4 years ago and shortly after, I started reading the source and making small changes here and there for things I could follow when reading the code. I learned almost completely by example from our source, which is why most stuff I do is just an altered version of something else that exists in the source. Once you have read through it enough and worked on things here and there, it is easier to know what you need to look at to find an example of what you might be wanting to do.
I am certainly not at the level of skill of most of our devs like KLS, Derision, or many of the others. I just have enough time invested in it that I can normally get done with what I need without too much trouble. I think they just tolerate my lower skill level because I am willing to spend lots of time on new client compatibility and adding new features and quest commands. And, I don't break stuff too often
My first big project was definitely to get EQEmu upgraded from Titanium so it could be compatible with SoF. That took an insane amount of time since I knew almost nothing about what I was doing when I first started on it lol. A little googling here and there, and reading the EQEmu wiki helped alot. Then KLS and Derision came in and helped finish the stuff that was a bit too far out of my scope of abilities (like completely rebuilding how items are sent to the client).