The space that exists between exploration and understanding. In this case, exploration can be seen as questing. Reaching towards something out of your internal curiousity, seeking to learn more. At this stage, the milk stage, most inferences can’t be formulated alone, especially if the core is lacking. This continues until the ceiling is broken and insight is reached. Then a signal passes to your brain, “yea, I know this thing.”
The journey from zero to one.
One of the important requirements, like Elon said, is a solid tree truck. First principles, like Feyman. A fertile soil which new seeds can grow. The core that powers the circuits required to absorb and process new information. Developing this requires time and lots of commitment to consistency. A whole lot, as I have discovered. Life might just be about getting yourself to do what you want to do, over and over again. Adjusting when necessary but never skipping a day (which somehow, I seem to be getting comfortable skipping days, bad).
Ultimately though, “discovery requires experimentation.” If you learn the thing but never do the thing, the thing would leave you. There you would stand, months and years passing by, without ever being able to say, “yea, I know this thing.”
