The author's core point is that climbing higher in any skill tree will often equip practitioners with a deeper index of understanding across that discipline. Reaching the "vocab point" as described in the article means one can participate in extensive discussion around the subject and skill; even when lacking the nuanced vocabulary to articulate certain observations or feelings, there is an intuitive and implicit recognition of the skill's shared language, themes and motifs.<p>I think this is an excellent mental model to evaluate our capabilities. I find the ability to analogize, to tell stories about vastly complex things in a way that is simple and digestible to a novice, is another hallmark of expertise. Richard Feynman used to say something like, "If I can't explain a subject simply, I don't understand it well enough" (paraphrased).<p>I'm the least technical team member in a scientific simulation company, yet I never feel out of place. In part, that's because I've invested effort into my ability to learn, but it's much more due to everyone else's ability and motivation to help me understand what's going on, to walk me through some of the layers of physical and digital abstractions, to call my attention to the history behind a dependency.<p>Analogies are the original abstraction, and they allow us to quickly and intuitively create a shared, contextual vocabulary for learning transfer. I wonder how much further there is to climb up this metaphorical tree!