A word for something that is complicated, but becomes easier with experience

Question

I've seen this question on Quora and one of the answers had the following sentence.

Cohomology is one of those things that seems really complicated the first time you see it, and slowly starts to make more sense once you have more experience.

And I thought, I need a word whose definition is exactly this sentence.

Edit:

He encouraged me to continue to study computer science, because he thinks that computer science is ____.

Note that this sentence asks for an adjective. I am also happy with a noun, as in

... computer science is a ____.

Answer 1

Note: This answer may be downvoted as "narrow" or whatever.

In case you're interested in endorsing a cognitive perspective, however, you may say that what you perceive as complicated or not depends basically on your own blocks of knowledge. Whatever you experience, may

1. either be easy to understand by means of this knowledge, and in that case it will further strengthen your existing perception about the world, which is called assimilation, or
2. fly in the face of what you've known so far, and in that case you will need to rearrange your existing blocks of knowledge in order to grasp what just happened, which is called accomodation.

Perhaps this word serves your needs (?)

Answer 2

Not one word, but learning curve gets at something that is complicated but gets easier with experience. Af course, most things that have even the slightest degree of complexity are in this category of somethings.

From M-W:

learning curve: the course of progress made in learning something

One often speaks of subjects and activities as having learning curves. Such subjects and activities may have varying degrees of steepness, i.e., require varying degrees of experience, knowledge, training, practice, etc.

Your example:

X is one of those things that seems really complicated the first time you see it, and slowly starts to make more sense once you have more experience. X has a significant learning curve.

Answer 3

I think the best word for the sample is challenge. A challenge is hardest the first time you confront it, but becomes easier with repetition. And you can use challenging in other circumstances.

In your first example:

He encouraged me to continue to study computer science, because he thinks that computer science is [challenging].

In your second example:

... computer science is a [challenge].

Answer 4

Not a single word or even two, but quite a mouthful: something that grows on you. It is used for something that was initially not easy/likable to you but later (with experience) became otherwise.

He encouraged me to continue to study computer science, because he thinks that computer science is something that grows on you.
He encouraged me to continue to study computer science, because he thinks that computer science grows on you.

TFD:

grow on you

to become increasingly liked or appreciated by you

At first the show seemed kind of weird, but it grew on us.

Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003. Reproduced with permission.