For me, the experience of learning how to read/write Japanese revealed this insight. In particular, I utilized a technique called RTK (for Remembering the Kanji, a book which describes the technique) in which each character is assigned an English word or short phrase that approximates its meaning, and then the student invents a colorful story that relates the key word to the sequence of strokes used in writing the character. Then, the information is committed to permanent memory through spaced-repetition study methods (including lots of actual writing of the characters).
This technique is often criticized for teaching only the writing and rough meaning of characters, while ignoring actual usage and pronunciation. However, for me it was an absolute revelation that allowed me to finally break through and eventually achieve something close to fluency in the language (passing the highest level of proficiency exam, the JLPT N1).
Later, I began to comprehend how the method itself--which is kind of abstract and involves quite a bit of raw repetition--achieved its amazing results by building a rock-solid scaffolding in my brain upon which I could hang all of my Japanese language knowledge. If learning is the process of building new knowledge structures in the brain, then understanding is the process of linking existing structures into tightly integrated patterns which can support higher-level reasoning. The stronger the base structures, the deeper the understanding that one can develop on top of them.
As for the "backdoor", I believe the original comment was referring to the way that the brain seems to naturally (and sometimes effortlessly) work to strengthen the connections between knowledge structures that are sufficiently "exercised". So, one can use conscious efforts to simply reinforce the raw knowledge as much as possible, and then trust in the "backdoor" to reveal the important insights and connections as they are uncovered.
This technique is often criticized for teaching only the writing and rough meaning of characters, while ignoring actual usage and pronunciation. However, for me it was an absolute revelation that allowed me to finally break through and eventually achieve something close to fluency in the language (passing the highest level of proficiency exam, the JLPT N1).
Later, I began to comprehend how the method itself--which is kind of abstract and involves quite a bit of raw repetition--achieved its amazing results by building a rock-solid scaffolding in my brain upon which I could hang all of my Japanese language knowledge. If learning is the process of building new knowledge structures in the brain, then understanding is the process of linking existing structures into tightly integrated patterns which can support higher-level reasoning. The stronger the base structures, the deeper the understanding that one can develop on top of them.
As for the "backdoor", I believe the original comment was referring to the way that the brain seems to naturally (and sometimes effortlessly) work to strengthen the connections between knowledge structures that are sufficiently "exercised". So, one can use conscious efforts to simply reinforce the raw knowledge as much as possible, and then trust in the "backdoor" to reveal the important insights and connections as they are uncovered.