An impressive explanation can make ignorance feel temporarily well dressed.

Fluency produces a sensation like understanding, and the two are easy to confuse. A well-shaped explanation delivered with confidence leaves you nodding, and the nodding feels like knowledge until you try to use it and find nothing there. What you acquired was a summary you could repeat, not a model you could operate. The clothing was excellent and the body underneath is unchanged.

Test the feeling before you trust it. After a good explanation, close the page and try to say it in your own words to someone who will ask questions. Wherever you stall is the actual boundary of what you know.