The process of learning spinal endoscopic surgery involves a learning curve. Spinal endoscopic surgery consists of three major components: puncture technique, tube placement technique, and microscopic manipulation technique. It is actually a hybridization of two techniques, namely, the fusion of puncture intervention technique and arthroscopic technique. The medium and bridge between these two very different techniques is the precise tube placement technique, and only by accurately placing the working channel into the lesion site can a successful spinal endoscopic surgery be accomplished. When I first started learning spinal endoscopy, I found the technique difficult to master until I suddenly realized it one day. I was once talking to a gastroenterologist about percutaneous lumbar discectomy, and she said that this is the same as our gastroscopy and enteroscopy, right? Yes, I suddenly realized that although the spine itself is located in a deep place, surrounded by important nerves and blood vessels, we can, like the gastroenterologists, perform a lumbar discectomy in the human body through percutaneous puncture and aligning the working channel to the intervertebral foramen, which is “the hidden surgical window opened by God for minimally invasive spine surgeons”. Like digestive surgeons, we can explore the secrets of the human body through its natural tubes and accomplish the sacred work of healing the sick and saving lives of others. The secret key that God has left us is the Kambin’s triangle, where we learn to decipher the complex three-dimensional anatomy around the intervertebral foramina. We have to find this secret room, and through the safety of the Kambin’s triangle we can get to where we want to be: around the herniated discs and nerve roots. However, we can only rely on the two-dimensional image (the treasure map) provided to us by the X-ray machine, which we need to convert into three-dimensional spatial information, including the image of the endoscope, which is also two-dimensional, and which we need to convert into three-dimensional spatial information to complete the microscopic operation, the removal of the disc and the decompression around the nerve root. What does this have to do with a Picasso painting? The essence of endoscopic spine surgery lies in the spine surgeon’s ability to create a three-dimensional anatomical space in his mind through the processing of two-dimensional images; whereas Picasso’s paintings are the other way around, in that the artist observes and understands the human body and space in three dimensions, and then solidifies them on a two-dimensional canvas. Picasso’s paintings were realistic in his early years, and in his later years, he creatively disorganized different parts and sides of the human body and objects and reassembled them on the canvas, thus creating the style of Cubism and interpreting the world with the unique visual language of the painter. Picasso once said that when he was creating each piece of work, he felt that Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo had been gazing at him behind his back, inspiring him to keep surpassing himself and his predecessors, and to keep trying and changing his painting style. Spine surgeons are also driven by a dual motivation. On one hand, we have to constantly surpass our predecessors in the pursuit of safer surgeries and better efficacy; on the other hand, our patients are constantly raising higher and even seemingly “overly demanding” expectations, such as, “Doctor, can we go to work as soon as possible after the surgery? On the other hand, our patients also keep raising higher and even seemingly “too harsh” expectations, “Doctor, can we go to work as soon as possible after the surgery”; “Doctor, can I still do my favorite sports after the surgery”; “Doctor, can the surgery remove only the discs that have fallen out of my body”; “Doctor, can the surgery remove only the bone growths that I have developed? “Doctor, can the surgery only take away the discs that have fallen out”; “Doctor, can the surgery only take away the bone spurs that have grown”. These “harsh” expectations motivate spine surgeons to keep working hard. It can be said that open spine surgery has earned its own historical status and reputation, just like a student who has already scored 95 points and still expects to break through and strive for 97 or 98 points, or a striker who has already scored 25 goals in a season and sets his goal for the new season to break through the 30-goal mark. Of course, the real advantage of minimally invasive spine surgery at this stage is not in achieving better long-term outcomes than open surgery, but in recovering faster and returning to daily work and life sooner from reduced surgical damage. Whether endoscopic spine surgery will become mainstream depends on the rise of consumers’ rights and patients’ participation in medical decision-making on the one hand, and on the other hand, whether we spine surgeons can be like Picasso who is willing to make continuous efforts to break through in practice for the sake of patients’ quicker recovery.