you can ignore some details which are either trivial, or irrelevant to the problem
The most important insight of the old saw that teaching someone builds your understanding, but being able to code it ensures you have actual, deep understanding is this: the details you ignore as "trivial" or "irrelevant to the problem" are quite likely the crucial details to understand it and make it work. You can't safely handwave away parts of the problem until you have a good understanding of the entire problem.
I can't even count the cases in which I though I understand some algorithm (either in uni, or more recently, through reading a paper), then I sat down to implement it and realized I don't really understand shit about it.
Comments
The most important insight of the old saw that teaching someone builds your understanding, but being able to code it ensures you have actual, deep understanding is this: the details you ignore as "trivial" or "irrelevant to the problem" are quite likely the crucial details to understand it and make it work. You can't safely handwave away parts of the problem until you have a good understanding of the entire problem.
I can't even count the cases in which I though I understand some algorithm (either in uni, or more recently, through reading a paper), then I sat down to implement it and realized I don't really understand shit about it.
I would say, at least speaking for myself, that is what happens most of the time.