Grinding in video games and real life

So eliminating unnecessary grind is not about starting small or dividing the problem — grind is not about the amount of work but the order we do it in.

I do not see how this definition is consistent with the previous parts of your post. Perhaps you should delineate when preparation ends and grind starts, or are you conflating the terms? But then you need to distinguish between procrastinatorial and preparatory grind somehow.

Of course, this process is not perfect. It creates the so-called knowledge debt — a knowledge we would have gotten if we have learned the entire topic. It can be necessary later on but we sacrifice it for early rewards.

Corollary to that, there is a knowledge glut, where you have an overabundance of theoretical knowledge about something, without much practical experience or results to show for it. I.e. you delve deep into linear algebra of convolutional networks or weight lifting, spend months studying theory, can't stop talking about it, but when asked to show anything in practice, you are lost. What pre-trained models exist? Can you perform a proper dead-lift? Do you actually need to know bio-mechanics of dead-lifting to start going to the gym?

Arguably, having experience debt and knowledge glut is a more dangerous position to be in, especially for perfectionists, as you will be paralysed by anxiety. It's even reflected in job markets, where extra years of education start playing wicked tricks against you after a certain point if you don't gain experience, i.e. being over-educated but under-experienced for a position is worse than being under-educated but over-experienced. Though both are obviously sub-optimal, the latter has a more straightforward solution, and isn't associated with as much crippling anxiety.

Why do people with more practical experience and experiences in general are less anxious? What is the cause and effect in this relationship?