AI research is strange in that you spend a massive amount of compute on experiments to learn simple ideas that can be expressed in just a few sentences. Literally things like “training on A generalizes if you add B”, “X is a good way to design rewards”, or “the fact that method M is sample efficient means that we should create environments with this specific property”. But somehow if you find the correct five ideas and you really understand them deeply, suddenly you’re miles ahead of the rest of the field