He&#x27;s commented on this type of thing before and it seems like he thinks it isn&#x27;t any great trick.  The main thing is that if you&#x27;re going to reason well from first principles, you have to learn from first principles.  If you build your &quot;tree of knowledge&quot; efficiently, then adding on to it isn&#x27;t so difficult because you have a good core.  Contrast this with the hobbyist that tries to learn rocket science when they don&#x27;t have a good handle on first-year physics.