I'd heard the phrase but not the acronym - there's a difference.
Acronyms are only good for communicating phrases that you hear frequently. For infrequent terminology it's verging on puzzle-solving. Sometimes you can connect the dots and sometimes you can't.
In learning any new area of study, I’ve found that sociology to be super important. Rather than just reading the literature, I try to be immersed on the community and to overhear what people are talking about (r/localllama on Reddit is a good start). RAG is the coin of the realm in those communities and beyond. It’s not infrequently mentioned — in fact rather the opposite.
I’ve found that learning an area solely by reading the literature
etc is necessary but insufficient because you don’t get a sense of which topics are important. I’ve made this mistake several times in my career and ended up working on things that no one cared about.
I think we're talking at cross purposes. I don't want to learn more acronyms. I want people to use less of them. (or rather use them more selectively). I'm trying to improve people's writing rather than improve my reading comprehension.
Acronyms are only good for communicating phrases that you hear frequently. For infrequent terminology it's verging on puzzle-solving. Sometimes you can connect the dots and sometimes you can't.