I think "dark magic" in a lot of these cases is just a lot of domain specific knowledge to get a general understanding of the topic. I think the Internet has r

I think "dark magic" in a lot of these cases is just a lot of domain specific knowledge to get a general understanding of the topic. I think the Internet has really helped. With a "dark magic" topic like graphics, you can get started with a little bit of domain knowledge and the right template code (which wasn't as easily available before the Internet). Without the right template code, you're doing a lot of yak shaving and having to learn a whole lot at once just to get a triangle on the screen.