Right before a Falcon Launch in 2015, Elon Musk decided to host an AMA(Ask Me Anything) on Reddit.
While most of the questions and answers revolves around the science of the rockets naturally, there was a gem of a quote about learning:
“One bit of advice: it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”
This concept is similar to a technique for memorization called the peg system. The peg system uses known objects that are easily pictured and recalled as pegs on the wall that you can associate and thereby ‘hang’ whatever you’re trying to remember onto it.
In the case of the Knowledge Tree, understanding the core concepts would be the pegs in which you can hang details onto.