Research taste, the harder-to-learn conceptual skills behind good research strategy, takes a long time to develop but very little time to apply once acquired

My model is that research requires a mix of skills. The day-to-day coding and execution is crucial. But there's also a set of harder-to-learn conceptual skills, collectively called research taste. These skills take a long time to gain because they have poor feedback loops, but they take very little time to use.