I came across an excellent article on the BBC website today.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48859333

It discusses how various cultures have found often complex ways to make poisonous plants into perfectly good food.

So what does it have to do with martial art? Well in a nutshell, it stresses that generations learn from their elders by copying without necessarily understanding all the details up front. Only when they've got the process nailed down can they then start trying to understand why.

I think this principle is present in martial arts, and it's probably a big chunk of where I've been going a bit wrong, questioning the whys right from the start when perhaps it's better to understand the bare mechanics first and then ask why.