Someone told me the following anecdote: "A company had a problem with one of its machineries and no one was able to solve the problem. The company asked a retired employee if he could solve the problem. The old man looked at the machine and asked for a hammer. With the hammer he slammed on the machine and it worked! The retired employee asked the company to pay him 1000 dollars. His former employer found this a lot of money for only one simple hit. Well, said the old man, the hitting was worth one dollar; finding the right place to hit 999 dollar".
I don't know if this is a well-known anecdote, for me it was new, but I found it a nice example of expertise based on experience that is difficult to teach others.
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