Lots of the skills are formal i . e . , are not about particular content . For example , logic is formal . It doesn ' t care if you ' re talking about math , if you ' re talking about biology or if you ' re talking about sociology . It is a general framework that can hold any of that content . Even seeing distinctions is formal . That is , when you learn the distinction between a priori and a posteriori , you don ' t really care about the specific content of , say , an a posteriori claim . You don ' t really care whether it ' s a claim about meteorology or geology the distinction cuts up all possible incoming knowledge at the most general level . Philosophers are obsessed with distinctions unlike any other discipline . When you have these formal tools , any other incoming information can be sliced up and made sense of a lot quicker , hence shortening the learning curve . It lets you step back and have a big picture view of how all the parts fit together in a structured way . I have definitely experienced this shortening of the learning curve , whether it ' s learning new mathematics , programming or easy things like law P .