> I find it difficult to competently reason about a system unless I've built my own version of that system. You're in excellent company from Feynman onward.

> I find it difficult to competently reason about a system unless I've built my own version of that system. You're in excellent company from Feynman onward. > The yak shaving was at least 50% about loading the abstractions into my brain fully. I haven't always made a version of new kind of system I'm trying to understand but I always try to at least find a toy model that I can play with to confirm understanding.