[mansr]

Niels Bohr, widely regarded as an expert, has said that an expert is someone who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. If you want to become an expert, you should presumably pick a suitable narrow field and start making mistakes.

[WJW]

Don't forget to also learn from those mistakes! :)

I agree though, expertise comes from trying all the configurations in a space and learning which work and which don't. After a while you start to see the patterns.

[RickJWagner]

I heard something similar from an older boss working in a place with a lot of complicated machinery to maintain.

He phrased it "If you aren't breaking something, you're not doing anything."