I would say what you talk about is experience. To have an experience, you must go this path to realize what to not do. It feels like a catch 22 kind of thing.
Doing it well comes down to experience, but doing it at all comes down to asking which of your unconscious assumptions are hard requirements. Nobody is actually saying you have skills X, Y, Z, which you must use to solve this problem, which is a huge difference from how schools prepare people for the workforce.
Experience certainly helps, but last time I checked, schools are supposed to teach you how to use reference tools (reference manuals, company listings, search engines...), and how to use them well - a pretty fundamental skill of being an engineer ?
