(Perhaps also cartographer’s advantage.)
The sculptor doesn’t create a beautiful piece by going top-down and shedding the rock to its finest detail, point by point. Instead, sculptors will chip down a boulder in layers, slowly adding more shape to the rock with each pass. As more rock is removed, proportions are easier to balance and the holistic view allows the sculptor to make better adjustments. As the sculptor chips away, the statue settles into perfection.
Find holistic vantages. Small details are often not worth perfecting before you can relate them to the whole.
When we learn, get the rough map of the entire subject, then settle down the details. Use schema. The deep interrelation of ideas within a larger subject is what most masters have access to that beginners can’t see. We can more quickly imitate mastery by developing this map of the subject first and some of the interrelations, then mastering the small parts. When we understand the whole, we can engage in better deliberate practice.
🚩: Most learning material doesn’t lead to this view early-on. It is also often the case that we can’t even grasp the holistic view until we have understood a number of fine-grain points first, then we see how they connect.