Your Holmes quote strikes a chord with a concept that I've had internally for a while: "bottom-up" vs "top-down" learning. I'm more of a "bottom-up" learner my

Your Holmes quote strikes a chord with a concept that I've had internally for a while: "bottom-up" vs "top-down" learning. I'm more of a "bottom-up" learner myself — I like to immerse myself in the details and then over time build an idea of how things work from that. But it's common to teach subjects in a more top-down way, especially in academic settings. You're told the big conclusions first, then maybe if you have time, get into the details of why. Perhaps in the homework assignments. There are pros and cons to each, but I do have a soft spot for the hard-won high-level conclusions that are distilled from complexity rather than being taken for granted. It gives a more satisfying and thorough understanding of things, though at the expense of much time and effort. I feel like Holmes' "this side" or "that side" of complexity refers to going through that effort.