Upon understanding something, an abstraction of that thing is instantiated, and the perception of that abstraction produces something like a surge of euphoria or even a sense of awe and wonder. "Oh I see!" That sort of thing.
People can then really latch onto these experiences and attach to them, defending them from encroachment even after it becomes apparent that the abstractions need to be modified or even dispensed with. It becomes a part of someone's identity.
Before this starts sounding too much like a moralization, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with phenomena like this.
Like a runner's high or that sense of satisfaction from the completion of a given project, these feelings make up part of the motivation for doing such things.
But for me it is never over. Those abstractions look good and feel good, but then I keep poking at them and am reminded that they are instantiated, and that they aren't quite it. They start to go away too. You have to keep thinking about them to keep them coherent, and oftentimes when you do that you are also taking in new information and experiences and then things start to look different again.
It's good to "get it," but you gotta keep "getting it." The work is never done.
