Context Is Expensive
When it comes to learning and understanding, facts are easy. If I ask you how many bits are in an IPv4 address it’s a single answer. People memorize facts and figures like this all the time. It’s easy to recall them for tests and to prove you understand the material. Where things start getting interesting is when you need to provide context around the answer. Context is expensive.
Cognitive Costs
Questions with one correct answer or with a binary answer choice are easy to deal with cognitively. You memorize the right answer and move on with your life. IPv4 addresses are 32 bits long. The sun rises in the east. You like Star Wars but not Galatica 1980. These things don’t take much effort to recall.
Now, think about why those answers exist. Why does the sun rise in the east? Why are addresses 32 bits long? Why don’t you like Galactica 1980? The answers are much longer now. They involve nuance and understanding of things that are outside of the bounds of simple fact recall. For example, look at this video of Vint Cerf explaining why they decided on 32-bit addresses all the way back in the mid-1970s:
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