That principle is represented in a few Zen koans that I recall from my earlier days. It does seem consistent that every person goes through a period in their learning process where they think they know more than they actually know. They exit that phase towards proper mastery only by realizing they know far less than what there is to know.
In the online world, this "middle category" manifests as the "helper who gets constantly corrected". I think we've seen a few of those here, and certainly on Usenet, and definitely on some of the Perl mailing lists.
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kiat, first, great thread. Secondly, it seems that no matter what discipline you are engaged in, the more you know about it, the more you know how much more there is to know (whew!).
When I first starting writing Perl, I wouldn't have recognized good Perl code if it bit me on the butt. But experience, and lurking around the Monastery, have at least helped me to recognize the better practices, even if I'm not there myself. It's a bit like sitting in a plane before take-off. Everything in the distance seems a single horizontal line, but as you climb you realize the depth and complexity of what lies beyond.
—Brad
"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up." G. K. Chesterton
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