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I think it goes deeper than knowledge about how a car is built or the proper spoon to use at a dinner party. It means to get in touch with your own feelings about how to react to a stimulus as opposed to a stock response. I forget where I read it but I remember reading that Shakespeare probably never committed a murder but he understood the darker emotions (rage, hate, etc.) that could lead to someone actually killing another, and he used that to build his characters. A good example of that is Hamlet in the play of the same name. He learns that someone has murdered his father which makes him wish for revenge on the murderer, but at the same time he experiences self-doubt and is indecisive about how to proceed. He becomes so disturbed by his own inner conflicts of 'protect the family' vs. 'avenge the murder of a family member' that he even considers suicide as a method of dealing with it (i.e. his "To be or not to be" speech). Shakespeare knew the conflicts to which the human soul is victim and used that knowledge to create a work of art. He could have just had Hamlet sneak up on his uncle (the murderer) and avenge the death, or accuse him of it in the throne room directly as many might do in that position, but instead he found a balance between that works better than either alone. He wrote what he knew in the greatest sense of the meaning.
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