I see that this is getting upvoted, but your example sounds like someone who realizes that a device doesn't work because it's not plugged in, and then makes a self-satisfied comment that his knowledge of electromagnetic theory usefully controlled his anticipations in this situation.

In other words, it's about simple conventional nuts-and-bolts technical knowledge, not an improvement on such knowledge brought by more advanced understanding of anything. There's no way someone who works in network administration wouldn't know that a "<1ms" ping coming from around the world is anomalous.