Any master in a skill will do that skill more efficiently and in less time. When first starting out if you have a few people on food and a few on research and leave them there forever you'll get masters who can support things once more babies are being born, etc.

And I had the good fortune of SEVERAL random events where I "chose wisely" and got tech levels upped in several areas so I didn't have to use my points. There seriously is a breaking point where your population and your mix of skill levels and people on certain things just seems to make your tech points skyrocket! It takes a while though.

Patience is important in this game