Very philosophical to say the least but I think what he's really saying is practice makes perfect. He's just tactfully preventing you from suffering the same old adage.
With practice you will begin separating and executing each action into musical timeliness way ahead of the music. It's what develops out of practice. I'm no naturally gifted person in any aspect of my life but the crawl-walk-run method of achieving goals has marvelously cloaked that history of hard work with a facade of genius here and there. I believe talent is a word men coined to give themselves a certain pedigree that simply isn't there. Hard work and perseverance is, though, and that's the only road truly successful, self-made people know.
The thumb's use in orchestration with the fingers is a 3-phase achievement. At first it seems like a dead appendage uselessly flailing at strings the inexperienced mind can only hope to make work. Then, there are break-through events over time that a certain practiced pattern yields. This is the phase marking the beginning of confidence and a certain relaxation that it's beginning to work. That will go through a long period of development. Then the last phase has the thumb leading the melody with the fingers in a role reversal. That's when your thumb has left the drums, become a guitarist and truly joined the party.
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