Yes, maybe I have experienced something similar in my research area in machine learning. Fundamentally, the best people of the best labs use the same tools in roughly the same ways as I do, there's no set of magical secret tools on that tier. They also aren't really using any math I don't know about.
They just comprehend papers quite fast, understand what's relevant and what is not with great intuition, have a lot of prior work in their memory, have gone through lots of projects so they know how to approach the new problem, they are aware of what actually are interesting open questions, they have refined "research taste", (and of course stuff like understanding the academic system and how to make the most of it etc). But the day to day activity is not fundamentally different than for lower tier researchers. They just have better ideas, better overview, and better execution. When they explain it all in hindsight it appears simple and as if you could have done it too. And of course they also run up against bugs and hardware issues and big messes but often just plow through and grind it out because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel well.
It's kind of a bummer in a way. Life is just less magical than we imagine. When I was much poorer as a kid than now as an adult, I used to imagine that being rich must be so different. But actually people are just people, there is no discontinuity anywhere. I've flown business class and been to fancy dinners, it's not fundamentally different from taking a bus trip or throwing a student party at the dorm. The people talk about somewhat different subjects, or are more polite, but overall it's nothing that a poor person wouldnt be able to comprehend.
It also reminds me how there's no "arrival" in life. There's alsays a next thing to do. But for example as a student you think graduation is "making it" but then you realize it continues in somewhat different form, but it's now about acing job interviews and you think landing a job will be the goal line, but then you see it goes on and now you chase promotions and good evaluations and so on. Similar things about private life.
They just comprehend papers quite fast, understand what's relevant and what is not with great intuition, have a lot of prior work in their memory, have gone through lots of projects so they know how to approach the new problem, they are aware of what actually are interesting open questions, they have refined "research taste", (and of course stuff like understanding the academic system and how to make the most of it etc). But the day to day activity is not fundamentally different than for lower tier researchers. They just have better ideas, better overview, and better execution. When they explain it all in hindsight it appears simple and as if you could have done it too. And of course they also run up against bugs and hardware issues and big messes but often just plow through and grind it out because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel well.
It's kind of a bummer in a way. Life is just less magical than we imagine. When I was much poorer as a kid than now as an adult, I used to imagine that being rich must be so different. But actually people are just people, there is no discontinuity anywhere. I've flown business class and been to fancy dinners, it's not fundamentally different from taking a bus trip or throwing a student party at the dorm. The people talk about somewhat different subjects, or are more polite, but overall it's nothing that a poor person wouldnt be able to comprehend.
It also reminds me how there's no "arrival" in life. There's alsays a next thing to do. But for example as a student you think graduation is "making it" but then you realize it continues in somewhat different form, but it's now about acing job interviews and you think landing a job will be the goal line, but then you see it goes on and now you chase promotions and good evaluations and so on. Similar things about private life.