I think it more about about the difference between knowledge and understanding. You accumulate knowledge by yourself or with the help of a teacher. But the leap from knowledge to understanding is always done by your own mind. The teacher’s help is only a better presentation of the information. Understanding is a step by step process, you’re just not constrained to a single path. And most of the times they converge and overlap.

The nice thing about learning, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.