I’m not so sure. I think a lot of physicists get better at this through practice, maybe especially in undergrad. I have a PhD in physics, and at this point I think I’m really good at figuring out the appropriate level of abstraction to use on something (something I’d put in the same category as the things mentioned in the OP.) I don’t totally trust my own recollection, but I think I was worse at this freshman year, and much more likely to pick e.g. continuum vs. discrete models of things in mechanics inappropriately and make life hard for myself.
I’m sure one can train this skill, to some degree at least. I don’t think I got better at it, but I did use “the appropriate level of abstraction” to get the numerical part of my thesis done without needing a lot of compute,
By the way, I agree that finding the appropriate level of abstraction is probably the core of what the OP describes.
I’m not so sure. I think a lot of physicists get better at this through practice, maybe especially in undergrad. I have a PhD in physics, and at this point I think I’m really good at figuring out the appropriate level of abstraction to use on something (something I’d put in the same category as the things mentioned in the OP.) I don’t totally trust my own recollection, but I think I was worse at this freshman year, and much more likely to pick e.g. continuum vs. discrete models of things in mechanics inappropriately and make life hard for myself.
I’m sure one can train this skill, to some degree at least. I don’t think I got better at it, but I did use “the appropriate level of abstraction” to get the numerical part of my thesis done without needing a lot of compute,
By the way, I agree that finding the appropriate level of abstraction is probably the core of what the OP describes.