Ah, your confusion makes sense. The problem was probably my framing.

Thinking it through again, I’m less interested in highly technical skills, and more interested in cases where someone clearly has access to a capacity in one context but loses access to it in another. Someone may find real clarity in meditation, for example, but lose it when challenged by a novel social (a party) or physical environment (juggling).

“Skill transfer” might be the wrong phrase. I’m pointing more toward the practice of reinhabiting an insight or an attitude across contexts. The thing that transfers might be courage, clarity, play, rigor, or a willingness to be confused. These are capacities that can, in theory, apply across domains.

This feels different than highly context-bound technical skills. A football player’s attitude might transfer well to basketball, but basketball still has a specific skill set that will be challenging at first. The stance may transfer before the technique does.

What I think people overestimate is there ability to bring insights into new contexts. They think “I’ve got it,” and might start to avoid contexts where they feel exposed. So it can be a worthwhile practice to get ahead of this tendency, and put yourself in situations that are challenging.

Is that making more sense? Thanks for nudging me to think about this more!