If you take the article with a bit of salt and step up the generalization ladder, the point is that skill expertise vs time grows exponentially... With the greatest productivity achieved in the initial time spent. Mastering skills on the other hand takes comparatively more time.
I thought about saying something like this, but after some reflection I don't think it's true. The shape of skill vs time curves is not always exponential.
For instance, take Argentine Tango. It took me 9 months of consistent 10 hours / week practice to even reach a point where I felt comfortable going to the average public social tango event. In fact, in tango it's pretty widely recognized that the learning curve shape is very different for leaders and followers. For followers it typically looks like [1]. But for leaders it's more like [2]. (Time on the x axis, skill on the y axis.) I really think that in general it's probably more like a "multi-hump curve" [3] in the general case. I had a situation recently where I took one lesson with a tango teacher and in one hour he totally revolutionized my dancing. And this isn't me talking, people I dance with regularly said that.
So I don't think the rate of progress at a new activity is always exponential or even fastest at the beginning.
[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Exponent...
[2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Logistic...
Great job getting through that initial phase! The first year can be trying particularly for leads.
I did something similar. People started saying I was a natural at tango. No. I put in the time. Lots of it. Every day. Obsessed, constantly aware of the fundamentals on or off the dance floor. Having some basic talent only gets you so far.
Back to the thread.
I have a theory achieving mastery in any area can potentially accelerate mastery in another area. Related or not. The mastering of mastery I guess. Maybe our brains are able to learn more as we learn more. Accelerating the learning process?