That brings to mind a learning staircase that comes up in art, where you go between stages of learning to draw better and learning to observe better. Since you

That brings to mind a learning staircase that comes up in art, where you go between stages of learning to draw better and learning to observe better. Since you can't draw better until you can observe better, but you can't observe better if you can't draw well enough to match your current observation skills. So in a similar way, you have to pay some "time tax" to move forward.