This got me recalling tutorials at university. (One-on-ones with a professor) Sometimes I would reach this strange state where I could be asked something by th

This got me recalling tutorials at university. (One-on-ones with a professor) Sometimes I would reach this strange state where I could be asked something by the professor, and I would say something based on what I had read, and the prof would say "yes that's right". But I knew that I didn't understand it. Somehow I was producing the right answer, but there was a dissatisfaction that was hard to explain. Whether it was math or economics, it sort of felt like I was regurgitating or just mechanically solving equations, without any feel for what was actually being done. The opposite also happened, especially in math. Thinking that I understand something, but then getting stumped when an obviously related question proved impossible. However the first case is the weirder case, because the latter is simply exposing that you actually don't know something via external input, whereas the former gives you external validation that you really shouldn't have.