I'm in academia and get to listen to and interact with extremely smart people who are experts in their subject. This quote really hits home for me. I'm not say

I'm in academia and get to listen to and interact with extremely smart people who are experts in their subject. This quote really hits home for me. I'm not saying I'll take it as literally true in every situation. But what I love about the quote is that it sets the bar for "understanding" very high. People sell themselves short on understanding - they reach a certain level and are satisfied that they understand something, when there is actually much deeper understanding to be had. For example, being able to write a proof of a theorem can be very far from understanding why it's true, but even mathematicians sometimes pretend it's the same. So I like that this quote challenges us to understand things more deeply. And more often than not, I find it rings true. (A basic example coming to mind is the determinant of a matrix. Can be explained in simple terms to children (at least the key idea), or in confusing terms to freshman linear algebra students....)