# Understand the fundamentals This is key principal. if you want to [[How to become an expert?|be an expert]] in a field you first need to have a good understanding of the fundamental ideas of that field. You need to work hard to [[Find your blind spots|identify your gaps]] in the foundations of a subject, filling them up, and deepen your understanding of ideas you already understand. Looking at the field from remote it seems smooth and continues but when you look closely it has gaps. your work is to notice those gaps because they are the places to work on and innovate. There is a story in [^2] on an expert musician that give lessons to advanced musician students and it goes by asking the student to play a basic tune and then the expert demonstrate how he plays it. When you get stuck in a research - try to go back and work on the related fundamental ideas. "The fundamentals are what everything is built upon. If you got any gaps - they get expose when you go to the edge."[^1] ## Created 2022-04-01 14:53 [^1]: - James Hayton, [The basic principles every PhD student needs to know](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrMwAOtB9S4&t=686s), timeline 16:40 [^2]: [[@The 5 elements of effective thinking]]