Once you are exposed to an idea, seeing it again in different contexts helps you see more of the pattern.
You start to build a 3d view as you play around with the idea more, apply it to different fields, find which metaphors are more robust.
High-fidelity association with personal experience and analogies you have a deep understanding of helps locks down and retain information.
This also helps us Prefer associative links > indexed files because as we deeply understand all of the contact points of an idea, we can quickly find it through the organic branches we’ve created of analogous associations.