I was in a similar situation to the author: largely self-taught, very little formal training or knowledge of the "big picture" ideas. It's a bit like learning

I was in a similar situation to the author: largely self-taught, very little formal training or knowledge of the "big picture" ideas. It's a bit like learning a language. You can learn a foreign language without formally studying grammar, and most of the time you will instinctively get things right, and have an intuitive idea of how grammar works. But formally studying the grammar of a new language makes learning much faster, and you have a deeper understanding.