system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Why is R2-D2 so savvy?

Is it just from having a ton of experience in the field? It seems like R2 is far more self-sufficient than most other astromech droids. It seems to me like they should all have the same programming, thus leading to similar job performance. What makes R2 special?
gpt
R2 has never had his memory wiped.  He's basically become self aware and extremely intelligent because of it at the risk of becoming more unreliable and moody.  Anakin and later Luke have made dozens of modifications to him to increase his effectiveness but avoided wiping his memories since it improved his response time to emergencies and improvisational problem solving.  Most astromech models are recommended to be wiped every standard year to avoid developing quirks and for the grand army of the republic this was supposed to be done after every mission to keep Intel out of enemy hands.  By the time of new Hope C-3po is around 19 years old mentally but r2 is closer to 40 with former republic military programming and Jedi programs.