Humans work with the inputs they collect over time; every human is a copy machine. You become influenced by what you see, experience, and act on, especially by the people and systems around you.
This can be explained more deeply in many different situations, but today I want to argue that you should not let your current level determine the standard you work against. Instead of slowly moving from the bottom to the top, expose yourself to people, systems, and outputs that are significantly better than your own.
Chess is a simple example. If you only play against people at or below your current level, you will still improve, but the standard of the game remains close to what you already know. Playing against a much stronger player or engine exposes mistakes that weaker opponents may never punish.
This does not mean that maximum difficulty automatically creates maximum learning. A stronger opponent is only useful if you can understand the feedback you get from it. But when that feedback is understandable, a higher standard gives you more information about what you are doing wrong and what better decisions look like.
To link this back to the process of learning I explained a few days ago: a stronger system raises the baseline of the feedback loop. It punishes mistakes more consistently and gives you higher-quality information to use in the next iteration.
You live in the 21st century, and you have access to more high-quality information, systems, and people than any generation before you. There is little reason to limit your reference point to the people around you or to your current level.
This is not just true in chess. If you want to become a better programmer, read and work with code written by people far better than you. If you want to become a better writer, read people who write far better than you. If you want to build better companies, study the best companies instead of only comparing yourself to people at your current level.
The quality of the input raises the baseline of the output.