That reminds me of a fantasy novel I began and abandoned - in it, there's a civilization that can do astonishing things and even though they have math beyond ours, they still have no idea how just about any of it works, because the rules are so much more complicated that they have a hard time pulling off balls rolling down ramps kinds of experiments (the ramp would remember balls rolling and, depending on the details of the ramp, make it happen slower or faster; and if you made a new ramp each time the pattern of your interaction with ramps would develop the same sort of reaction). One of them was kicked out to a place where magic was weaker, allowing her to figure it all out; she ended up stronger than any of them.