Dunno; it probably depends a lot on the kind of task, the kind of person, and your observation skills. Some people explain more, some people explain less. Some people are more neurotypical (so you could try to guess their patterns by observing what other people similar to them would do in a similar situation), some people are weird and difficult to predict. At some tasks people produce artifacts (a mathematician can make notes on paper while solving a problem; if you obtain the paper you could reconstruct some of their thoughts), other tasks happen mostly in one’s head (so even if you placed hundred hidden cameras in their room, the important steps would remain a mystery).
I guess the success is usually a combination of superior observation skills and the person/task being sufficiently typical that you can place them in a reference group you have more data about. (For example, I have met people who had good observation skills, but had a difficulty understanding me, because their model maybe worked for 90% of people and I was among the remaining 10%.)
So, if possible:
make a good model of a similar kind of person
become familiar with the kind of work they are doing
try to obtain their working notes
That is, if you tried to reverse-engineer Prince, it would probably be useful to have knowledge about music and performing (even if nowhere near his level), as that might give you at least some insights about what he was trying to achieve. Looking at his notes or his history might help to fill some gaps (but you would need the domain knowledge to interpret them). People similar to Prince (not sure who would that be) might have a good intuitive model of him, and you could ask them some things.
At the end, it would all be probabilistic, unreliable.
Dunno; it probably depends a lot on the kind of task, the kind of person, and your observation skills. Some people explain more, some people explain less. Some people are more neurotypical (so you could try to guess their patterns by observing what other people similar to them would do in a similar situation), some people are weird and difficult to predict. At some tasks people produce artifacts (a mathematician can make notes on paper while solving a problem; if you obtain the paper you could reconstruct some of their thoughts), other tasks happen mostly in one’s head (so even if you placed hundred hidden cameras in their room, the important steps would remain a mystery).
I guess the success is usually a combination of superior observation skills and the person/task being sufficiently typical that you can place them in a reference group you have more data about. (For example, I have met people who had good observation skills, but had a difficulty understanding me, because their model maybe worked for 90% of people and I was among the remaining 10%.)
So, if possible:
make a good model of a similar kind of person
become familiar with the kind of work they are doing
try to obtain their working notes
That is, if you tried to reverse-engineer Prince, it would probably be useful to have knowledge about music and performing (even if nowhere near his level), as that might give you at least some insights about what he was trying to achieve. Looking at his notes or his history might help to fill some gaps (but you would need the domain knowledge to interpret them). People similar to Prince (not sure who would that be) might have a good intuitive model of him, and you could ask them some things.
At the end, it would all be probabilistic, unreliable.